


Through the Ages

by Emma61488



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Injury, Evil, F/F, Historical References, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2018-11-14 08:37:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11204364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emma61488/pseuds/Emma61488
Summary: (Swanqueen) A supernatural love story that extends through time. A unnaturally long life that witnesses major events in history .





	1. Chapter 1

AN: Greetings Everyone! Just for everyone info I’m counting on this one being pretty long. It’s a SwanQueen Kinda slow burn. I will also be incorporating historical event but changing some of the finer details to fit the story line. Also great big thanks to my partner in writing Brittany. Couldn’t do this without you. I really hope you enjoy the story, please, please review and let me know what you think. The first chap may be a little slow so bare with me. I own nothing. 

Chapter 1

The Atlantic ocean was dark and turbulent as a ship attempted to navigate it’s way safely through a storm. The year was 1587 when a group of 117 people dared the dangerous crossing from England to the New world. Most never having been aboard a ship before, coward as huge waves slapped up against the the sides of the wooden ship. Gale winds whipped through the night air, furiously aggravating the loosely fastened sails. Every passenger on board the rickety old ship prayed to God they would not be torn asunder. 

Later in life whenever Regina Mills recalled the journey, water is what engulfed her mind. The cold, ever present element seemed to seep through to her very bones. Water, it was everywhere in some form or another, whether it be the moist air or in the dampness in their clothing and bedding. Salt water bled through the riveted planks of the ship, saturating anything and everything that came in contact with it. All freshwater consumed had a tinge of salt, due to tiny droplets of ocean water that collected and fell from the timber into the barrels that held the precious commodity. They detested it, yet they were completely dependent upon it, there was no escape. 

After months of treacherous traveling, and unpredictable weather, they finally arrived in a large bay, that would later be known as Massachusetts Bay. The water was blue, the sun was shining as the weary passengers gazed for the first time, acre upon acre of untouched land. To them this was not a just a plot of land for agriculture, no, this signified a new beginning, a fresh start with a clean slate; a chance to make a reality, their hopes and dreams in brave new world. 

Regina was nineteen, when the voyagers first set foot on the shore of the new world, but she remembered that day like it was yesterday. The joy in the eyes of every person as they set foot on solid ground for the first time in months. She herself could scarcely contain her exuberance when she felt the sand beneath her feet as she and her father walked hand in hand on the beach towards the temporary base. 

When all of the passengers were ashore and gathered on the beach, the appointed Governor, John White requisitioned a group of scouts to search inland for Fort Lane; a military outpost where 15 men were supposedly stationed awaiting the new colonists. The fort was easily located but there was no sign of the 15 men. The fort itself was completely abandoned, by the look of it, for quite some time. Despite the mysterious disappearances of the men, the colonists made their home in the newly christened, Roanoke colony. 

During the oncoming weeks,the people developed routines. Jobs were assigned, officials appointed, and council members named. Housing and land was assigned, of course by the status of each member of the colony. The higher you were in status, the better property you received.  
The Mills family were highly respected, Henry Mills had been appointed Advisor to the Governor John White, consequently they held a higher status than most.

Henry’s wife, Cora Mills, was an older beauty that married above her class, always looking for ways to further her position in life. Their youthful daughter, Regina. A dark haired beauty, with a rebellious free spirit was the absolute joy of her father’s life.

The passing months were dark times for the Roanoke colonists. Winter had set in and they rightly christened it “The starving time.” Food had become so scarce that they had to resort to eating things that would turn the stomach of any other. First they started with the domesticated animals, horses, cows, dogs and cats. When they gone, the desperate people turned to a more undesirable animal, the rodents that scavenged the streets looking for crumbs of their own. Those too became harder to find, so then they began collecting leather hides, leather from their shoes, any scrap of leather they could find. They boiled it down to a hardly edible glue like paste that barely sustained them. 

The weakness set upon them partnered with the horrid living conditions and putrid water supply paved the way for a very new assassin, sickness. It ran rampant in the new streets, claiming indiscriminately. The Governor and his council met to discuss the condition of the townsfolk, the colony as a whole. They knew they would not survive the winter without an intervention of sorts. 

Several ideas were mentioned, two came up as possible solutions. John White and his trusted advisor Henry Mills decided the colony had its best chance if they depended not on one idea but both. The Governor would take the ship and some men to return to England for the needed supplies, but this of course would take months if not years. A more immediate solution was also needed. Henry Mills would be left in charge as the standing Governor while John White was away, he would try and make contact with the natives in hopes of opening up a trade system. 

It wasn’t long before the Governor had left, and Henry started putting together a small group of men to accompany him into the untraveled forest in search of the native village. He gathered 6 good men said goodbye to his wife and daughter then set out to task. They traveled mile after mile not finding any sign of an Indian population, they were close to giving up when finally a group of young men were seen, or made themselves visible to the exhausted colonists. Surprisingly one was able to speak bits of english though he did not say how he had come to learn it. With a short exchange of words the men were led to the natives encampment where they were ushered into a large tent then introduced to their Chief. 

“Why have you come?” 

Henry as the leader stepped forward to speak for the group. 

“How is it you speak our language good sir?” Henry asked respectfully. 

“You are not the first white man to come to our lands. ” 

“I see. Well, your greatness. I am Henry, and I have come to offer trade goods for food, my people are starving and sick they surely will not survive the winter without your generosity.” 

The Chief sat for a moment considering Henry’s words before he spoke again. 

“You and your people should return to you homeland. Your people will die before the end of winter but it is not starvation nor sickness you have to fear. The land on which you stay is cursed, all that step upon it perish.”

Henry didn’t quite know how to respond to this statement. He had heard before that Indians were a superstitious people, so he would treat this as such. He also knew the native people did not share the same religion as they did, so Christian charity was certainly out of the question. He wasn’t entirely sure if they even had a set belief system or not, but being an observant person he had noticed that this tribe was a very close nit family. So maybe he could try an appeal to their good nature. 

“Thank you Your Greatness for the warning. As of now we do not have a ship to return with and are desperately in need of food. Woman and children are suffering, dying at the brutal hands of starvation. Is there anyway we can trade our goods with you to acquire enough food to last the winter?”

“Your people are no concern of mine, I have my own people to care for here.” The Chief answered sitting stoically and unmoving. 

Henry was not above begging when it came to the lives of the colony and his own family.  
“I understand sir. But if you could spare just some to sustain them. We will give you whatever you request.”

Again the Chief considered the white man’s words. He was not a heartless man, but he knew keeping them alive for now only saved them for a far worse fate to come. But he could not refuse this begging man, he would give what little he could. 

“We will trade.”

Henry let a sigh of relief, his family and the other would not starve. “Thank you good sir, may god bless you for your kindness.” 

“I do not know this god of which you speak of. Please trade your goods and leave. Heed my words, return to your homeland before it is too late.” Henry nodded then excited then tent. 

 

The group spent the next hour or so giving their far less valuable goods for the food they needed to get through winter. They were given horses to help them travel with the weighted bags and directions on a quickest root back to their fort. Once packed they set off the return home. Not fearing the stench of disease nor the gauntness of starvation, young Regina Mills went from house to house helping the sick and the starved in whatever way she could. Though she never listened, Cora had forbidden this, saying she should not be mingling with the plagued common folk. In her mind the pestilence that plagued them, had started in the slums of Roanoke due to the class or breed of people who inhabited it. 

But Regina was nothing like her mother, she thought herself no better than them and just as at risk. She was a soft spoken girl with a kind, but spirited, rebellious heart. She was also among the most beautiful young women of the colony. She stood out against the dirt, grime and filth of the town like a rare diamond set in black stone. 

After her rounds among the needy, she would sit atop the palisade walls waiting her fathers return. Despite her new world seemly crumbling before her, she remained positive and affirmed that her father would return to save them all. For this she didn’t have to wait long, after only 8 days, her father and the group of men returned with victorious smiles worn proudly on their faces. 

Upon entering the gates they were greeted by a crowd with emaciated faces and longing voices, young and old crying for food. Assuring the crowd that everyone would get their fair share they set up an organized system to dispense the resources. Once everyone had received their share a celebratory, meager feast was held in honor of Henry's glorious return . 

Thanks and prayers given, drinks and tales shared as the celebration carried on into the night. Henry Mills sat in silence next to his rejoicing family, warnings of curses plaguing his mind.

 

Weeks went by with no significant events. Colonist without the worry of starvation, could now set into a routine of sorts. Building up the infrastructure, building the town chapel, surveying property for structures fell to be overseen by Henry. Daily domestic care, left to the women. They were creating a world modeled after a utopian society. Reaching for greater heights than their predecessors, with hopes and dreams sustaining and pushing them ever forward. 

Little did they know catastrophe waited in the winds .

One a night not unlike so many that had passed, the moon rose full, reflecting it dull silvery light against the newly fallen snow to give the effect of a diamond covered ground. It was on this beautiful night that things traveled in the trees. Beings that moved with such precision and speed that their only mast would be the wind itself. 

Death entered Roanoke colony in pure silence, laying siege on the unsuspecting town. Morality came in search of, or in need of precious treasure, though not an object or item, it was of vital importance to each the victim and the villain. The villager’s didn’t stand a chance, their foe was godlike in strength and speed, the ultimate predator. 

Once life had been extinguished, fire was set to the village. The attackers gathered around the fire as they always did after such a kill, but soon noticed one among their ranks was missing. A search exposed the charred remains of their fellow comrade. Hearing the dreadful, otherworldly scream for behind her, Regina kept moving forward. Pushing her tired body through the tall snow drifts. She couldn’t think, she could hardly breath, all she could do was listen to the last command her father had given her… Run.


	2. Chapter 2

Here is chapter 2, I hope all who reads enjoys:) Please let me know what you think. Reading your reviews always makes my day. Viva la Swanqueen<3

Chapter 2

John White returned to England, leaving behind the starving colonists in hopes of returning within the year with enough provisions to assure the colonies success in the New World.   
In truth, he didn’t return until two years later. A war had held him in England, his ship had been commandeered by the Queen’s Navy to fight against the prevailing Spanish Navy. Once the war was over, and he at last was able to gather supplies and make the return journey to the America’s. 

It was as grueling a journey as it had been the first time he had made it, but finally John had arrived back on the land he claimed two years prior. After landing the small craft that had carried them from the ship to the shore, the crew and their captain stepped onto land in wonder. No one had come to greet them. Even from where they stood along the shore there was no movement anywhere to indicate life nearby. John left a small group of men behind to watch the supplies, and took the remaining men to search out the fort and the whereabouts of its inhabitants. 

The journey from the shore to the citadel John knew by heart. He led his men inland. It struck him as strange, how the pathway was untraveled and overgrown. Another pathway surely had been made, he and his crew pressed forward. Hacking their way through the overgrowth, it wasn’t long before they entered what John knew to be the surrounding area of the outpost. The closer they got to the known location of the settlement, the more they, the more he began to realize something was amiss. 

They walked through land surrounding the village once clear and made ready for cultivation now reclaimed by shrubbery and brush. Sounds of a bustling community, replaced by sounds of the forest. Gone were the sounds of colonists bustling about, the aroma’s of food wafting on the air, or the chopping of timber. Curiosity and concern pushed John and his men onward, though weariness was creeping in with each step, carrying them into the colony. 

The Palisade Gates brought the company to a halt. Where pristine walls had been, only charred, dilapidated remains stood as a sad reflection of what the structure had once been. John White stood before them, no longer able to deny the terrifying truth, a frightening fate had befallen the colony. After the immediate shock had passed, it turned into questioning. The group after little deliberation, had to investigate. Unable to push open the fractured gate enough for an individual to fit through, they broke through with axes. Hacking at the brittle timber until it crumbled to the ground leaving direct a line of sight to the village, or to where the village had been. 

By all appearances, the hopeful colony of Roanoke was no more. Walking the grounds in a state of horrified confusion and shock, the men were left unable to comprehend just what had taken place. Everything had disappeared, there was not a building left standing nor any sign of any ever having stood. The forest had begun reclaiming the unused land. Tall, patchy grass had grown in in the interior of the fort. Fallen leaves and moss had replaced the the worn dirt roads, that had previously been traversed daily by colonists. A member of the search party had a mind to dig a bit beneath the surface of the earth and found old ash, pieces of shattered bricks, and the only unearthed evidence of the lost colony.

Continuing their search of town and its surrounding areas they came up empty handed. The only sign they had found was the evidence of a fire under a thick layer earth. The men spent hours excavating the area, in the charred rubble, no body nor any sign of remains were found. This suggested the the colonists did not perish in the fire. There were also no grave sites found which more than likely ruled out starvation or disease as the culprit; as this would have happened over a period of time. The remaining colonists would have given their fellow towns folk a christian burial. It seemed as though they had simply abandoned the site after setting it ablaze. But what reason would they have to abandon their outpost? Everyone had simply vanished from the face of the earth. 

Concluding there was nothing else that could be done, then men under the instruction of their Captain, carved a crude cross and placed it in the center of the tragic town as memorial to what had once been. Upon leaving the area, they passed a tree which caught the attention of the Captain himself, one no one had notice on arrival. Scared deep into the tree was the written word, “ Croatoan.” It looked aged and worn, so it had been quite some time since it had been carved. 

John led the team back to the beach to confer with the rest of his crew. John purposed they stay and search further inland, but most of his crew believing the land to be cursed, wanted to return home to England. So being a democratic group, they put it to a vote. Returning to England inevitably won out, so John put up another proposition. He offered to pay each man double his wages if they would allow a 10 square mile search of the surrounding forest. Some men agreed to this proposal and some did not, so again the crew split into factions; one group returning to the ship, believing in said curse; another group staying on the beach too scared or superstitious to enter the forest; the last group, working for the money went searching with John White. 

Another day had passed with fruitless labors. The ten arduous miles they had covered produced no more clues as to what had become of the missing colonists. John White had no choice but to return to England empty handed, never to learn the true fate of the one hundred and seventeen missing colonists. 

 

She had made it such a distance from the outpost that now, nothing but darkness surrounded her. The only sounds that broke the winter silence was that of her heavy breathing and her legs pushing through the barricading snow. Regina was long past the point of exhaustion, but she kept going, not knowing, or caring in which direction. Her father’s last words replaying over and over again in her mind. 

“Regina run.” 

 

Her mind was unyielding. Keep moving, keep going; but her body grew weaker with each plunging step into the deep snow. Breathing had become laborious, her lungs burned as she involuntarily inhaled the sub zero atmosphere. Thick, warm liquid seeped from a wound in her neck but almost instantly turned icy cold from the frigid night air. In the not so far off distance she heard the splintering of a tree branch. Was she being pursued? This should have made her move faster, push harder, but if didn’t. Part of her longed for the escape of death, the passing into nothingness. Another tree branch snapped above her. Was this monster with a woman’s face toying with her? She knew it could move in complete silence if it chose. 

Death seemed inevitable. Why should she push further and prolong her suffering? Her body weak from blood loss and wracked with pain, she collapsed into the snow. Mere seconds after her body sunk into the frozen slush, a creature came to stand above her looking down on her as a predator would its prey. The small part of her that remained conscious could feel the presence of it beside her, it gave off no warmth, no breath disturbed the air surrounding it. The creature just stood in complete silence smelling the air like an animal, collecting what information it could from the scents. Surely this thing knew death would be greeting her soon, she needed no more than time and she would be leaping off the precipice into the abyss without so much as a push. Or so she thought. 

Regina knew she should be afraid but she wasn’t, she was too exhausted to be afraid. She was content with letting the hand of death take her and lead her into oblivion where she would rejoin her surely deceased father. 

Before the creature make a decision on what to do with her fallen prey, there was another disturbance in the surrounding area. The beast hover over the mostly dead human, a sound came for the being as if this new presence insulted her every sense. It hissed, and bared it fangs to the new threat and almost instantly the single creature was joined by her comrades. 

Though this attack would ultimately decide Regina’s fate, she was not the reason the Breathless had been attacked. She did not know it, but Regina had crossed into a territory that was protected by an ancient culture and was governed by ancient laws. It was clear the Breathless one’s presence would not be tolerated here. The leader wanted her death as recompense for the life of her mate, but for the Indian’s this conflict was about territory and nothing more.

Out of the darkness a barrage of arrows coursed through the air with finite precision toward the intruders. The Breathless surrounded the human in the snow, not willing to cede their prey, but an ancient power held them fast, they were unable to move further forward to counter attack their adversaries. 

The arrows flying at them would not kill them but they would wounded them greatly, spreading a poison into the bodies making them weak and slow. The Indian warriors greatly outnumbered the few members of the coven, they had to retreat or risk being taken over completely. The dark leader took one last look at the dying human, she knew what would happen immediately after her death she also knew the Indians would kill her once she had turned. The dark woman longed to see this young girl depart from life, and afterlife, to hold her smoldering ashes in her hands. For the death she had cause was that of her partner and lover. Though the craving to murder this woman after her transformation was intense the leader would not sacrifice the lives of her followers for it. Her need would have to be satiated by the knowledge that the girl’s fate would be death at the hands of the enemy Indian’s. With a whisper the archfiend and her company vanished into the night air leaving the scarcely alive Regina in the snow.

Again the dying, last member of the Roanoke colony was cautiously approached by strangers, unknown to be friend or foe. The large group of Indian warriors came to stand around the woman. No longer coherent Regina did not hear the discussion going between Indian warriors. Her condition was obvious, after death, her body would transform and she would be reborn with a blood lust and god like strength and speed. Of course the Indians knew how to handle monsters such as these, they had been keeping them at bay you for hundreds of years, but never have they been in a position such as this. 

By nature the Indian’s were a kind people, who in general wished to live in happiness and peace. The decision of the group was to bring the girl quickly to the Chief, he would know what to do with her. Two of the warriors carefully picked her up and carry her through the snowy night to their encampment. 

With a soft exhale, life fled the young colonist. Bowing their heads, the Indian’s began filing out of the Chief’s tent where she had been placed. The change was different for each afflicted human. Some turning in minutes, some not for days, but this woman’s transformation began almost instantaneously. Though this was the last physical pain she would ever experience, she would carry the memory of it for the rest of her existence. Every cell and every vein in her body saturated with liquid fire as the metamorphosis took hold. All the primary functions of her body changing, altering the very base of the essential needs for survival. For days this torment lasted, her screams could be heard for miles as her body morphed into that which had created her. The need for omnivorous sustenance would no longer rule her life, this was now replaced with an ever present, unquenchable desire for blood.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Hello everyone! Sorry for the long wait. As you will notice if you know anything about Elizabeth Bathory, I’ve changed a few of the details regarding her and her husband. Thank you to my friend Brittany for helping me with this one, it was a doozy to write. I am also looking for a beta to help me if anyone is interested :) Anyway I hope everyone enjoys the story. Also hope its not too confusing. Lol! Plz forgive any errors, i was up many late nights for this one. Please review and let me know what you think!! I love reviews, they inspire me to write more :)  
Viva La SwanQueen!

 

Chapter 3 

Present day

Slightly before 5:30 am, the sun had yet to to make its introduction to the new day, when the silence of the old campus was broken. The loud echoing of heels clicking against the aged stone, reverberating off the walls as one Regina Mills made her way to her office. Deploring the distance only because she had to keep a slower pace, though the privacy it afforded made it worth the placid hike. 

Finally reaching her destination she continued her pageantry, fumbling with the keys then unlocking a wooden door the read her Professor alongside her namesake in big bold lettering. The room she entered was dimly lit, just how she liked it and though old, the space had all the up to date amenities. She neatly placed her things in their designated areas then took a seat down at her desk in front of her computer. In her seat she closed her eyes in appreciation of the peaceful silence that surrounded her. Here in her solitude she could be herself. To an extent...

After her she began her morning routine, checking for any announcements, email, and class schedules. It amazed her how so many students, even seasoned came to see her after class just to ask what their next class was. 

Regina Mills had been teaching History at Boston University for 2 years now, today was the first day of the 3rd year. She had of course prepared all her lesson plans months in advance, today would be introduction day. Though she didn’t usually do much of one. Something along the lines of, names, majors, possibly some hobbies, standard general introductions. She had to make them think she cared, just another addition to the act. Her fretting thoughts were interrupted but a light alarm from her phone. 

This tiny bell was a call to action, her class was scheduled to begin in ten minutes. She gathered her things stepped up to the door, put on her mask and walked out at a perfectly practiced pace.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Mariana Trench is the deepest known point in the world’s oceans, ranging at about 11,000 meters down in the Pacific. But even this was challenged by the depths at which Emma Swan slept. Alarm after buzzing alarm rang, trying to pull the blonde back into existence, but none could rouse the sleeping girl. 

Two girls stood beside the blonde woman’s bed. One gaping in awe at her ability to sleep, the other staring in annoyance. Ruby Lucas had been trying to wake her dead like roommate all morning, she had tried just about everything aside from slapping the girl. Thought she seriously considered it. 

“Emma! Lily is calling!” Ruby yelled. 

No reaction. 

“Who is Lily?” Belle asked curiously. 

“Supposedly, this sleeping beauty’s true love.” Ruby retorted not even attempting to mask the disdain, which Belle caught quickly but decided not to pry.

“Does she have an On Switch?” Asked a petite brunette jokingly. 

“As a matter of fact, she does... Great idea!” Ruby responded with a slight giggle as she ran excitedly into the kitchen of their shared apartment. 

She returned within a minute carrying a large bowl of water, Belle stood by wide eyed in shock knowing what her new roommate was about to do. It was her first semester at Boston University, and these were the girls she would be rooming with for the year. 

Ruby with a grin that could bridge the Mariana Trench, came to stand just above to slumber blonde then without hesitation, relieved the bowl of it contents by dumping it on the unsuspecting girl. 

“Wahhh! What the hell Ruby!” Emma a sat up instantly after the numbing water engulfed her head and upper body. 

Trying to keep her composure while the drenched Emma stared at her with complete animosity, Ruby said in all seriousness. “ Class starts in 30 minutes.”

Emma’s eyes went from harboring anger and hostility to wide with panic. “ Whhha...Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” She yelled as she surged from her bed into the bathroom. 

“Tried. You sleep like the fucking dead.” Ruby sassed knowing Emma wouldn’t hear her. She then reached for her new roommates hand who stood flabbergasted at what she had just witnessed, and led her into the kitchen. Ruby assured her that it was completely normal and that Emma would be altogether over by the time she came rushing out of the bathroom. 

Ten minutes had passed, Ruby and Belle sat by watching their roommate running around in a frenzie. Belle wondered as she sat, could she really handle the shenanigans of these two?

“For heaven’s sake where the hell are all my clothes!?” The blonde shouted for all to hear.  
“All dirty, I’m sure. ” Ruby answered with a cheeky tone.   
Emma didn’t respond, only continued searching her area for clothes. 

“I did recommend that you wash your heap of filth 2 days ago along with me, but you said and I quote. ‘Who needs clean clothes?’ ” 

Again Emma did not respond to her roommates comment, she only gave her the wickedest look she could muster then continued exploring her dresser drawers and closet. 

“Emma Swan. Five minutes and Belle and I are leaving! Put on some damn clothes!”

Exasperated, the blonde went to her pile of dirty laundry and picked out the least smelly shirt and jeans she could find. After getting dressed and throwing her hair up in a messy bun, she grabbed her book bag and headed towards the door. 

“Ugh Em, you looked and, smell like a hobo.” Ruby pointed out as she reached into her purse and pulled out a small pink bottle of perfume then for the second time this morning, she drenched her oblivious roommate. 

“Jesus christ Rubes, now I smell like a freaking hooker. Lily is gonna freak! ”

“Get over it and don’t diss my scent. Anyway, you needed something strong enough to cover the smell of whatever is growing on those clothes.” 

Emma rolled her eyes as Ruby pushed past her through the door. Belle had just been standing back grinning at the comical girls. She had decided she would enjoy their company and she was sure they would all be great friends.

Sitting in the passenger seat of Ruby’s car Emma grabbed the phone from her pocket. Grinning as she saw that her longtime girlfriend sent her morning greeting and more. 

7:15am   
“Good morning babe! Take me to lunch today?” 

7:23am  
“Babe?”

7:31am  
“Emma Swan answer me this instant!”

7:45am  
“Since you obviously can’t take a minute to answer your girlfriend then let’s just cancel lunch plans then yea.”

Her happiness withered as she read the last message. 

7:55am   
“Baby i’m sorry, I overslept this morning. I was running very late, but thankfully I think i’ll make on time to my first class. Thank god for Ruby or else I would have slept right through. Can I make it up to you?”

Emma finished the message and waited for a response, when none came she put the phone back in her pocket and tried to forget about the whole thing. She would fix it later. The group found parking surprisingly easy this morning, thank the gods. 

“What class do we have first?” Emma asked as she and her roommates hurriedly stepped out of the car. 

“Medieval European History.” Belle answered. 

“We all have that class?” Ruby questioned

“I believe it is a required course.” Belle answered with a tone as if this was all common knowledge. 

“Ugh, I hope it’s not a snooze fest.” Ruby grumbled. 

“I wonder who the Professor is? I heard this is her first year teaching this class. She normally teaches Early American History, but took over this position after the regular Professor had an accident.” Belle dulling her voice trying to add to the suspense. 

“Mhmm.” Em cooed, pretending to listen as they made their way down the hallway looking for the lecture room. After some searching they finally found the room they were searching for. They joined a gaggle of students trying to get through the door to find seats. Ruby grabbed a hold of Belle, looked at Emma wordlessly asking her to follow and led them to a seats directly facing the giant black board and back two rows. 

“Ugh, must we sit so damn close to the front?” Em complained. 

“ Oh...I don’t know, I rather like these seats.” Belle declared shyly. 

“Yea, Em’s the newbie likes these seats. Anyway, I told you I have bad eyes.”

Emma rolled her eyes with no verbal response, knowing Ruby’s eyesight was perfect, even strangely acute. 

Minutes passed, students poured in the room, soon all the seats were taken and the girls were just another trio in a crowd. Emma was a tad irked, an especially tall young man had taken the seat just in front of her. Where as normally, she would be able to sit in a comfortable slouch, she now had to posture herself awkwardly upright as tall as her her body would allow, to see anything. She blamed her friend entirely and gave her another fiery glare. Ruby knew exactly why she was getting a wordless reprimand and apologetically grinned in reply. 

The lecture hall was loud with conversing students while Emma sat silently contemplating this morning’s written altercation with her girlfriend. She had been dating Lily ever since high school, they had been friends since they met in middle school.   
Given all that time, they now knew each other completely and the love was there, but at times Emma felt as though she needed more. These thoughts were hastily chased away by the loud clicking of heels. 

All eyes turned towards the entryway just a dark haired woman stepped over the threshold. Silence filled the expanse as all watched the very aware Professor make her way to her desk at the far side of the room. Emma eyes fastened to the mysterious woman. Then somewhere from the depths of her consciousness a vision tore her from reality and existence, an explosion of remembrance flooded her mind. Fleetingly, a vision of those amber eyes staring into her own crashed and impacted her entire being. Distantly she knew those eyes, she had gazed into the boundless wilderness that they held before. 

Like remembering a dream but seen through a haze, then to only watch it fade away into darkness. Maybe a delusion, a false specter haunting her mind conjured by beauty.   
Emma could not breathe, the complete ability to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide had abandoned her. To her knowledge she had never met this woman but she was summoning feelings Emma hadn’t known before. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Entering the classroom on the first day of the year was always the same. By now Regina had gotten used to the stares and even the occasional gasp, but nothing prepared her for the scent that hit her just as she made it too her desk. Her composure faltered for only a instant, before remembering her audience. This aura she knew so intimately, so profoundly that her body instantaneously, and involuntarily reacted. For a century she had been waiting for this very moment, she had to fight against every primal instinct to keep to the pageantry that she had perfected. 

Dare she look? Dare she search out and find the eyes that haunt her entire existence so beautifully? Holding the position at her desk while absent mindedly placing her things on the surface, she hastily glacen at the crowd before her.

Battling to keep her voice steady and clear she greeted her students.

“Good morning everyone, my name is Professor Regina Mills. You may refer to me as Professor Mills.” 

Her eyes continued to scan the class as she easily found the woman she had been yearning for. Not thirty feet away was the disheveled blonde. Her scent was clearly that of another as it almost caused Regina to recoil when she approached the right hand side of the room.

“Here is the syllabus, in it you will find everything you need to be successful this semester. Attendance is crucial to success in the classroom. Do be on time and mindful of important dates. My office hours, phone number and email are all on the last page. Use them as you see fit.” 

It was the same spiel Regina always gave on the first day but unlike every other first, she wanted to keep Emma in her classroom. She did not want to break after giving the bare minimum so she made a show of passing around an attendance sheet and the syllabus. She saw Emma lean to whisper to her the young girl beside her, surely her companion. Regina inspected the girl, drawing in the air around her, dissecting every scent until she found it. 

Of course. Emma had her mongrel, a lost stray tethered to the hand that feeds it. Only a minor obstacle.  
Realizing she had been staring in silence awkwardly she shook the thoughts from her head she continued on. 

“You, blonde in the second row,” Regina said coolly watching Emma’s eyes snap upward. “Could you read the next section for the class?”

Nodding Emma flushed pink, “Yes, Professor Mills.” 

The air would have been sucked from Regina’s lungs if she required it. It was her Emma’s voice. It sounded exactly the same. She read the paragraph aloud with ease and then looked to mahogany eyes for approval. The next student took up where Emma left off. She knew what it would take to make Emma realize they belonged together but Regina had to break their connection before a skill all vampires had developed robbed the blonde of that decision. Regina had never used compulsion, on Emma, and she never would. 

“Are you okay?” Ruby whispered, nudging the blonde from her trance. 

“Huh?”

“You don’t look so hot,”

“I’m good,” Emma responded nonchalantly. “I just feel like... Like i’ve seen her before but I cannot pinpoint when or where.”

“I think she just has one of those faces.” Ruby tried to assure her, though she was lying. Ruby had been watching both her new teacher and Emma closely this morning. She had not anticipated Regina being here she cursed fate and circumstance. 

Across the room, Professor Mills smiled, once again locking eyes with the blonde. With Ruby’s words fresh in her mind, Emma swallowed hard, ever thankful that the Professor was standing on the other side of the room. Emma couldn’t help but feel a world was passing between them. Something only they could feel. 

Inside her left pocket, her phone vibrated. Ripping Emma away from the moment just long enough Regina could stall no more and dismissed the class. Even as Emma, Ruby and Belle tucked away their things, the blonde cast one more look at the Professor as she left. Tucking away the strange feeling of familiarity in exchange for indifference and loyalty to her ‘True Love’.   
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

15th Century

In the late 15th century, rooted in the Carpathian Mountains was a small village of Cachtice hidden deep in a valley. Shadowing this modest village, atop a great hill stood a dark foreboding castle. Residents of this village looked towards the castle in fear and apprehension for they knew all too well the evil that resided there. 

Once upon a time in the arcane country of Slovakia a young girl married a mysterious Baron. She knew hardly anything of this man, only that he was a general in the king’s army, that he was immensely wealthy and wielded great power. He moved her to a castle atop a hill and they ruled over the village settled beneath it. 

The Baron himself was an evil man. A warrior to his very core, he fought under, but not for the king. He fought to satiate his own hunger for blood and death. On the battlefield no other could match his strength and speed, he massacred hundreds, alway taking a great prize after a kill. His soldier witnessed the monster he was, using no weapon only his bare hands and teeth to rip and tear at his enemies like a primal animal leaving only parts of a carcass. This lust to kill and consume partnered with his wickedness, earned him the macabre title, ‘The Black night.’ For he hunted in darkness. 

The Baroness Elizabeth Bathory was intelligent and refined just as any noble woman ought to be. While her husband was away she upheld and ruled the household and the village. She lived a life of finery and extravagance, basking in the wealth and power she now held. Daily she dealt with visiting diplomats, extending family visits and exorbitant parties. 

During his years at home the Baron had to find alternative ways to satiate his almost constant hunger for blood. Once a kitchen staff member had stolen a loaf of bread, he was promptly caught and the Baron dealt with him personally. He was chained to the wall in the castle dungeon, castrated then was made to watch a pack of hungry dogs consume his severed extremity. After the show depravity, both the Baron and his wife together, shared in the spoils after the man had been relieved of his blood. For she now shared the craving of blood but beyond this, she had proclivity and natural talent for the torturous macabre. 

Though the Baron had proved himself to be the very definition of barbaric and inhuman, his wife would far surpass him in notoriety.

Needing more than just the occasional punishment of a worker, they started having the villagers that had committed a crime brought to the castle for recompense. They found their castle to be the perfect playground, with its many rooms, tall towers and dungeon. 

Together they subjected their victims to hours of agony, chaining them to walls, burning, cutting and finally releasing them for their mortal coils after depleting the bodies of blood. 

Often when finished they just threw the victim from the highest tower down into the surrounding forest and left the body for the wolves. Year passing into year, they revelled in the blood they spilled but always craving more.

This sadomasochistic couple continued their killing spree up until the Baron was called back to war. Since her partner was gone killing in multitudes at the front, she had to continue feeding her lust alone, with a bit more subtlety. At first...Months went by with no word for her husband until one day a messenger arrived from the front. The Baron had died on the battlefield, though not from blade nor bow, but from an unknown sickness. His body was returned to her, unrecognizable. 

He was pale without color, his skin sunken in looking emaciated and aged. She stood over his body, carefully examining his figure. She should have been overtaken with grief but truthfully the only thing that scared her was the thought that she would someday look just as her husband did. Her beauty would cease to be and she would rot as a corpse at her end. 

She of course knew what this mysterious sickness was. While hunting his prey he had been careless. He had consumed directly from the victim and had taken the very last drop of blood. This last drop ran through his veins acting as a poison, instantly rotting the arteries as the drop was cycled through his body. Elizabeth Bathory was absolutely determined that this would never be her fate. So long she did not drink from the body she could devour every last drop. 

After the death of her husband is when her life truly began. With not a care in the world she killed indiscriminately at will any girl she deemed unworthy of life or worthy for her consumption. At times she would line up all her female worker and pick from the lots the few she needed. Always the youthful girls, full of vitality.

Afraid of the wrath of their mistress a few staff aided her in procuring young girls and disposing of their bodies. Under the pretense of a well paying position at the castle, many young girls were lured to their deaths. 

Deep in the depths of the newly christen Blood Countess’s dungeon, girls were treated far worse than cattle for slaughter. The chamber was dimly lit by firelight which illuminated several naked girls hung up on the ceiling and walls. Their bodies were punctured numerously, rods protruding forcing the life giving liquid to evict the body that held it. 

Some were confined by complex torturous contraptions, built and designed to keep the victim alive for as long as possible while harvesting their blood. Under the hanging bodies sat large vats of collected blood, the treasured nectar the Countess craved so much. 

In the center of the room under a mass of chains was a marble tub. Every evening Elizabeth’s faith staff would bring a new girl and hang her upside down in the chains above. The Countess would undress and in her nudity lay in her tub, the staff would then mercilessly cut the girl’s throat, slicing through the vocal cords so the screams changed to sickening gasps of wet noise. The blood fled the girl’s body and Elizabeth bathed in the thick scarlet liquid while enjoying the girls dying song. 

With the constant killing, bodies began to pile up. They were being casually tossed to the side or piled up in corners. Numerous amounts of every stage of decomposition were present. Bodies that had been there for years, laying in skeletal form. Bodies having been untouched and dead for months, bloating and rotting from the inside out. Then the freshly dead, still covered in thin layers of blood, glassy eyes open staring into nothingness, the last imagine before death lingering just behind the lens.

The stench of death hinted with human waste overwhelmed the grounds, penetrating every room, every crevasse in the castle, the Countess savoured it. She would have continued her murderous ways if she had not careless and killed a nobleman daughter. To her just another nameless victim her loyal workers had procured. 

The nobleman had known where his daughter had been last, he sent men to investigate the Bathory castle. Right away the men could smell the stench reeking the entirety of the grounds, this was instantly alarmed them. They questioned the castle staff, they reasoned there had been an outbreak of disease. The men asked to see the bodies, the workers could not produce. After threats of punishment of death the terrified workers began to talk. 

After the ghastly story they had been told the went to investigate further, now knowing where to go. Down the stone steps, they made their way to the dark dungeon. Once at the entrance they saw the carnage the workers had attested to. Sadness, anger and revulsion filled them all at once. One man found in the corner of the room the naked remains of the girl they had been sent to find. Laying atop a pile of other nameless girls carelessly thrown there to rot. The horrific end to a beautiful young life. 

A messenger was sent straight away to fetch the girl’s father and other ruling families in the provinces. They would all have to come to decide what to do with the murderous Baroness.   
The rest of the men searched the ground for the butcher of the girls, she was found calmly waiting in her bed chamber. Breathless, she say poised and postoral, seemingly willing to cooperate. Being that she was a noblewoman she still had to be treated as such. After a bow then men approached her to take her into custody, but just as they were upon her, she lept. Killing all the men easily, almost without effort. 

She waited for the sun to fall before she left her room. She knew she could not stay in her beloved country or she be hunted down and burned. Not long ago she had heard rumor of a new land that was being settled across the great ocean, maybe this would be her escape. She would no longer be Elizabeth Bathory, now she was just Fiona. 

 

 

AN: Just so there is no confusion, I’ve made the main antagonist Fiona ( the Black fairy) for my story she began as Elizabeth Bathory and now the Leader of the Breathless Vampire coven.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Aloha! Sorry it has taken so long to post. I’ve been super busy working like 65 hours a week and trying to write two stories. Anyway I hope you all enjoy. Please feel free to review and let me know what you think. As always thank you to Regina Bee, the best writing partner ever. 

 

Chapter 4  
1587

Before the heart beats it’s first beat, before the lungs can draw in a first breath, a contract is penned. A limitless lifetime bought, death the price to pay. At contract end some run and hide, beg and plead, but the gossamer Death feels nothing. In the lucky or unlucky event that end comes at the hands of a Breathless one, or vampire. Death purges the being of its soul along with all life giving functions. Yet a half life remains, leaving a conscious, self aware but empty vessel. 

Regina re-entered the world. Her eyes opened to the darkness of night holding the blinding light of a raging fire as her side. Defensively, she retreated into the corned against a stone wall to escape dancing fire that assaulted all of her senses. She sat hugging her knees to her chest, taking in her surrounding area. Her sense were a mess, she was surrounded by sounds, noises that had no near origin. Habitually, involuntarily she drew in a breath, she was able to taste the air accompanied with the smell. But her eyes were far worse than anything. All she saw were spots of bright and darkness, unable to pick out a single object to give it a name. 

Tentatively she reached down to feel the ground beneath her, she felt the familiar wetness of water, but strangely she felt no cold. Something was wrong. This was wrong. She tried to think back to her last coherent memory, blank. Her trance was broken by the sound of footsteps approaching through the well known sound of snow. Without a thought she smelled the air, as soon as her brain registered what it was that approached, her body reacted. On it’s own accord she launched forward only to be stopped by a reinforced timber wall. 

Clawing and screaming she scratched at the timbers, animalistically reaching for the old man that stood confidently on the other side. 

“This will pass. In time, you will regain your mind.” 

Was all the Chief said before tossing in a wounded rabbit then entered back into the darkness. Noticing the shift in the air and the new smell of fresh blood the new vampire released the wood she has been attacking and flew for the animal. Instinctually she bit deeply into its flesh drinking in the thick wanted nectar. Swallowing gulp after gulp of warm blood her mind came back and she realized what she had done. Regina dropped the now dead animal and stared at her shaking hands that were now covered in blood.

“Oh my god.” She sobbed aloud. 

1607  
Lounging in the moonlight atop a branch in a tall birch tree, Regina sat listening to the dark world around her. She had not fed for a couple days and it was starting to cloud her normally kind disposition. She closed her eyes and inhaled the wind picking out and cataloging every scent for identification.

Her concentration was disturbed as she heard labored breathing in the distance and the breaking of twigs underfoot all in quick succession. Instinctively she turned towards the disruption. Intent on discovering the source of the disturbance, Regina took another unnecessary breath in. The familiar smell of human filled her, but not a human of her tribe. There seemed to be two as the first, was unfamiliar in scent was being pursued by a musky, earthy, sweaty creature. 

Closing her eyes she picked out all the different smells creating a clear picture in her mind of a predator chasing its prey. A brutish male in pursuit of a fearful girl running, stumbling through the dark unfamiliar forest trying to escape. The humans finally came into focus, Regina could see the young woman dashing through the brush ten steps ahead of her pursuer. A dark haired man, well built with hunger in his eyes. 

Should she intervene?

It was something her Chief would whole heartedly disapprove of. The girl tripped and crashed to the ground the great pleasure of the stalker. He was instantly on her, rolling her so she lay on her back while he did his best to control her arms. 

“Killian please,” she begged.

“Come on lass, we’re just having a bit of fun.”

Regina watched as the girl flailed and kicked her legs trying to free herself from his grip, to no avail. But God was she trying to. 

My very own damsel in distress. 

Regina thought just before she leapt from her stationary position on the branch, it took her mere seconds to travel the one hundred yards between them. The leaves in her path lifted into the air with the sudden rush of air as she ran. With less force than she was capable of she smashed into the man, and flung him into a nearby tree. Newly freed, the blonde-haired girl stood instantly. Preparing to bolt until she made eye contact with the vampiress.

Regina stood strong and fierce, taking her in scent at a greater depth. Her red eyes fixated on the visibly pulsating neck. She could hear the blood flowing through her veins, the heart pounding in her chest. The raven-haired vampiress took a step forward to drown herself in the thrill of the moment but then stopped.

No. This is not the kind of monster that I want to be.

The blonde stood awkwardly with her arms wrapped around her chest. Not able to comprehend the danger she really could be in if she made a wrong move. 

“Thank you…I-my name is Emma. What is yours, kind stranger?” Taking a step forward to get a closer look at her ‘kind stranger’. In reaction, Regina took a step back. Unintentionally, but dimly illuminating herself in the moonlight.

“I’ve not seen you in Jamestowne before.”

“I’m not from Jamestowne, Dear.” Regina took another step in retreat. The Monster waiting just beneath the surface grew harder to suppress the longer she took in the girls sweet scent.  
She moved around a the tree were the predator that had been chasing the young woman, remained unconscious. He certainly did not smell as fresh as his prey, which would no doubt be a delightful way to sate the hunger, but if there was one thing Regina despised it was a person who preyed on the weak. 

Standing over him, Regina’s throat burned, and her body ached at the proximity of mealtime. Rich, thick, and pumping steadily beneath his veins. Calling to her. The pain could be eased so easily, it wouldn’t take much effort at all. 

“Please, I can feed you a hot meal. Allow you to bathe, warm yourself at my hearth. Anything to repay you.” The girl pleaded. 

“What were you doing in the woods with him? Killian, was it?” Regina asked, keeping her back to the girl. 

“The woods calm me.”

“The woods are a dangerous place, Emma. Do be sure to be safe on your journey home.” 

“May I at least know the name of the woman who saved me?” Emma asked, stepping alongside her hero. 

“My name is Regina.” 

“If you change your mind about joining me, I live just beyond the edge of the woods near the well. What is mine, may also be yours. What will you do with him?”

“Leaving you with nothing to fear from him.” Regina’s head turned so that Emma could sense the lingering threat. 

“Goodbye, Regina.” Emma turned on her heel, returning in the direction from whence she came. Watching until Emma was far beyond earshot, left the vampiress exactly where she wanted to be. Alone with her prey.

Ripping at the collar of his shirt, Killian began to stir. “Please,” he raggedly breathed. 

“We’re just having a bit of fun.” Regina cooed, and sank her fangs into the vein on his neck. 

Killians screams echoed through the darkness. 

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
1587

Days passed and the ritual of the first night continued and each night thereafter she convinced herself that she would not partake the next day. But she always did, unable to fend off the involuntary reaction of her body’s need to survive. The old man had said nothing after the declaration he had made, she realized he was waiting on something. More than anything she wanted to speak with the old man, but each time he came and threw in the half dead animal her body worked against her mind and she went into a frenzy. 

Over time she managed to finally open her eyes get used to the extensive change in vision. She taught herself to focus on one thing and block out all the rest by concentrating on specks of dust as they floated in the air. She Could see in complete darkness as if she looking into the day. But alas her views were very limited in her cave. Time was particularly hard to get a handle on. Her body could no longer stand direct sunlight so she retreated into the depths. 

Her life now was a constant battle between her former self and the monster that now shared her body. Every moment she fought against a terrible hunger, a beast working it’s way to the surface waiting to be unleashed to feed. 

To fight this she summoned her memories, good and bad. Anything to remind her that there was still apart of her left. 

 

~~~~  
Flashback~ England 

“Regina my darling, I have some news for you. I have decided that we will make the journey to the New World. The opportunities there are endless and we can build a new life for ourselves within the new colonies.” 

She looked into her father’s eyes as the declaration sank in. His excitement and delight shone brightly against the backdrop of dreary England. He had always worked so hard for his family and now he felt they had the opportunity to better their lives. How could she steal this from him?

“What joyous news father!” 

She feigned a smile. At her positive reaction, his smile widened and he ran to embrace his beloved daughter. Even the negative reception from his wife could be handled now that he had undeniable support from his Regina. 

“What great adventures await us.”  
~~~~  
Months passed and the old Chief continued his nightly ritual of feeding his captured monster. Each night he brought a half dead animal, threw it into the the dark cavern and waited. The monsters reactions had been consistently changing, she no longer lost control. He started making his visits longer, studying the woman as she forced herself to slowly approach her meal instead of giving in to her animal instincts. Every night he expected her to beg for her freedom, but she never did. 

Regina Mills had in life been a strong willed individual and it seemed to carry over into her life after death. The small part of humanity that remained was determined to stay in control. She would not become that which had killed her and her family. Constantly she fought against her new instincts, thoughts and bodily reaction. At feeding time, thought it caused her great pain, she forced her body into submission. She would only approach the nearly dead animal when the human that had brought it was safely away from the barrier which held her. The beast inside her wanted nothing more than to devour every living thing within a hundreds miles. She knew she possessed the skills to make him free her but again this was something she fought against. She was terrified of what she would do if she were free. 

On a night not unlike any other, the old Chief came to deliver Regina her food but also with new intentions. He approached the wooden barrier slowly squinting into the dimly lit cavern. Seeing the new monster he spoke. 

“Would you please come here?”

Of course Regina, like every night expected him and heard him coming minutes before his arrival but she hadn’t expected him to speak. Curious, she did as he bid. She approached slowly looking him up and down, taking him in with all her senses. 

Once she reached the timber wall he stared intently. He hadn’t seen her up close in some time, he noticed some minor physical details had changed. Dirt and filth covered her body, her clothes ripped and tattered revealing copious amounts of her flawless skin. It was as pale as snow and solid like stone. Her eyes blazed in the darkened cavern as red as the blood she consumed. 

“Do you know what you have become?”

Shaking her mane of matted hair, she waited him to speak further. 

 

“My people have lived in this land for many generations. My grandfather and his grandfather before him ruled our nation and kept peace with our God, the Mother. She accepted us into her bosom as a mother would her child, and we lived off the gifts she provided. Time passed and our happiness fled as we watched for the first time white clouds crossing the great water coming to our land. 

Men we had never seen before came in great numbers came to our shores. They ravaged our lands stealing from the Mother then building ungodly structures as tall as trees. After a time, these mean reached our village They raided our encampment killed our people searching for treasures we did not have. Our warriors fought bravely but stood no chance against their weapons. Most perished. In the carnage and slaughter that was once our home my great grandfather, the Chief found his woman lying in a pool of her own pool in the dirt.

Overcome and crazed by sadness he unsheathed his stone blade and buried it into his body calling out to the Mother to forever curse these men. The Chiefs blood mixed with that of his love and sank into the ground. As the precious blood of the man and his love saturated the earth, the mother wept in great sorrow, for she had loved her people. A dark rage filled her heart as she saw the blood of her people spilled she so cursed the ones who had spilled it. They would remain ever searching to ease the unquenchable thirst for a thing they shed so freely.  
She took their life effortlessly. As their soul lingered at the abyss moments from entering eternity she ripped and detached their souls from their consciousness. She forced their consciousness back into their vessels trapping them in complete everlastingness.Their curse was to walk the earth in death, cold and breathless ever craving but never satiating their lust for blood. 

As the generations pass, more white men have come to our shores and The Breathless learned they could kill the human and turn them. This they have done and their numbers grow.The barrier the Mother has place holds them, but there are rumors a the leader of The Breathless has developed the dark gift. 

In the recent years a prophecy told of a woman made monster that would return the balance to our land.She would be of The Breathless kind but not of their nature and she herald in the extinction of her species in this land. 

I believe that is you.”

Present Day

“Henry please hurry up. You are going to be late for for school.” Regina called from the bottom of the staircase in her home. 

“I’m coming, i’m coming.” Henry answered while throwing his books in his bag. 

Almost instantly he was down stairs and in the kitchen picking up the glass of red liquid his mother had put out for him. Hungrily he finished off it’s contents and licked his lips for any mess the blood may have left. 

“Do you really think it was her?”

Regina rolled her eye’s, now semi regretting telling her son that she had seen his birth mother. Of course she couldn’t blame his eagerness to know all he could about her, he hadn’t seen her in over a century. 

“Yes, it was her.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes Henry.” Hiding her exasperation. 

“When can I see her?” He asked with a great big grin. 

“Darling, we had this conversation, she doesn’t know you and I exist. She has lived an entirely different life as a different person.”

“But she always does remember eventually. Right?” 

“Yes, we just have to let things take their natural course. Things will fall into place like they always have.” 

She would never forget the night she had found Henry. Screams of men, women and children filling the night air. Crowds of people swarming the decks in panic with nowhere to run for safety. 

Out of the mob of crazed people she saw a young boy running to the only other person he knew. She gathered him in her arms in relief while scanning the area for his mother, but she was nowhere to be seen. He was sobbing uncontrollably, wet and cold. She had searched the entire ship for the pair but found nothing. It was becoming increasingly difficult to continue with rising waters. She was running out of time... She would never forget the feeling of dread when she realized the decision she had to make. Take to the boy to the safety of a lifeboat or continue searching. 

She shook her mind clear. No sense dwelling on the past when it couldn’t be changed. That had been over a century ago, and it was the longest Emma had ever stayed dead.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Aloha! Here is the next Chap. Apologies, it could be considered a bit slow. But I will remind everyone it is a SLOW burn. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys it. I would love to hear your thoughts so feel free to review. I seriously love reading them, it makes my day as it would anyone. Enjoy!

Chapter 5  
Present day 

The rest of the day went smoothly, attending classes each with it’s own introduction but all holding a similar structure to the first. Emma could not quite put Professor Mills out of her mind. She had no idea if it was Deja vu or not but the Professor felt familiar. Aside from the abrupt emotional invasion, the first day of school seemed to be a preview of an uneventful year to come.   
Emma, Ruby and Belle weaved their way through the halls at day end, heading to the parking lot. 

“Hey do you guys wanna go to The Pour House? I could use a strong drink. It’s only the first day and I already have damned homework. I think these teachers want us to quit.” Ruby sneered. 

“The Pour House?” Belle questioned. 

“Yea it’s the best bar in Boston!” Ruby answered excitedly.

Emma giggled. “In Ruby language that means she wants to see her boy toy for some fun and get cheap drinks.”

“Ah.” Belle responded with a look of revelation. 

“Hey! Peter is more than a boy toy… He has officially been promoted to ‘ Mister-iss’.”

They all laughed. Ruby has been known to have many boy toys so it really was something to graduate to male mistress. 

“I’m down for a drink or two.” Emma piped in. A beer would likely help take the edge off her overworked brain. Lily still hadn’t gotten back to her and she had been all day bothered by the first classes events, though she couldn’t figure out why. 

“Great let’s go!” Ruby finished the conversation, not waiting to see if Belle would protest.

Car rides with Ruby behind the wheel were always memorable. Everything irritated the beastly woman. Using the turn signal too soon or too late, not using the turn signal, someone tailgating them, someone lagging too far behind, the offenses on Ruby’s road rage meter were unending. Emma didn’t know why but for some reason Belle still seemed shocked by the other brunettes behavior. When they arrived at the bar, they filtered in and found seats in the back at a booth. The bar was flooded with flickering colored lights from old brands of beer signs. Football playing silently on several tv’s while light music hung in the air. 

A young man that would be considered handsome, quickly came and sat himself in the booth right next to Ruby. Shame be damned, he instantly attached his mouth to Ruby’s neck. Ruby giggled, then pushed him off. 

“Peter... My friends and I would like three Bacardi Mojitos.” He grunted slightly before removing himself from her personal space. 

“Starting early… I like it.” He winks. 

Ruby rolled her eyes. “Just get the drinks, Peter.” 

“You got it babe.” He replied with a wink and sashayed away from the table. 

When he was out of earshot, Emma spoke up. “Jesus, it’s like he lives for your abuse.” 

“Well, what can I say… When ya got it, ya got.” Ruby answered with a smirk. 

The girls spent the next hour and a half gossiping and downing two more drinks each while simultaneously chasing off would be suitors by playing the “Gay Game.” 

“We should probably get going soon. I don’t want to be too tired for classes tomorrow.” Belle exclaimed. 

Emma was just about to agree when she felt a slight vibration in her pocket. She pulled out her phone to a text that read. 

“Baby! Where have you been?? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

Emma couldn’t help but smile a little but then wonder why her girlfriend hadn’t just called. 

“You didn’t call. The girls and I decided to get a drink after classes so we came to The Pour House. Still here, if you wanna come by.”

After a minute or two a response came. 

“OMG! You read my mind. Be there really soon.   
Kiss, Kiss...”

Again, Emma smiled. Happy to know her Lily had decided to moved past today’s earlier events. 

“Hey guys, do you mind if we stay for one more drink? Lily is coming by.”

At the sound of Lily’s name Ruby scrunched up her nose in disgust. She had stopped hiding her distaste for the girl eon’s ago. Belle was still new to the group so she had yet to witness Lily’s shenanigans. Rolling her eyes Ruby agreed to the second drink, Belle was about to respond but she and even the music was interrupted by a loud commotion by the entryway. Everyone in the bar turned just in time to see a woman crash through the door then fall to the floor, followed by a young man. Emma instantly recognized her girlfriend and ran to assist. Remaining in her seat Ruby leaned over to Belle.

“Looks like she’s already had a few.” 

Belle didn’t answer just sat and watched the scene play out. 

Emma made it to Lily and inserted herself in between the very inebriated gentleman that had been attempting to help up the drunken woman. 

“My god Lil, what the hell.”

“Emma, there you are! We have been looking for you everywhere! I was starting to get worried.” Lily slurred grabbing ahold of Emma and jumping into her arms. 

“Ah huh. Looking for me and drinking?” 

“Oh, Will got hungry so we stopped to get some food and had a drink.”

“A drink? Lily, it looks you drank them out of business. And Will?”

Lily ejected awkwardly from Emma’s embrace and moved to stand by the almost failing to stand upright, Will. 

Patting him on the chest, Lily introduced her male friend. 

“This is Will. He is new at work, so I’m taking him under my wing.” Her words were for the most part coherent but Emma had to listen carefully. 

“Mm, nice of you.” Emma said reaching for her girlfriend’s hand. 

“So, ah… Will how long have you been at the Coffee Mug?” Emma waited for a response.  
She watched as he was leaning incoherently toward her girlfriend who was noticeably staring and grinning. 

“Ehem” Emma cleared her throat. She was trying her best to stay calm and polite. 

Lily smacked him in the stomach, breaking his zoning. 

“Oh, um.” He thought for a minute.   
“What was the question?” He laughed. 

Forcing down her her irritation, Emma repeated the question. 

“How long have you been working with at the coffee shop.” 

He laughed again. “Um. about seven months now.”

“Oh… Having a problem catching on? Selling coffee must be more complicated than I thought.”

Apparently not catching the intended jab he spoke up again with a toothy grin. 

“No, not when I have the best trainer.” He winked at Lily. 

Lily giggled and smiled. Emma rolled her eyes. 

“Lily, lets go.” Emma threw Ruby, who had been monitoring a let’s leave look. She grabbed Belle who was mid drink and dragged her towards the waiting Emma.

“Have a good night Will. I’m going to take my very drunk girl friend home now, thank you for bringing her to me safely.”

“But baby, we can stay for a little while longer.” Lily begged. 

“Hun, I doubt the barkeep would even serve you.” Emma answered pulling her toward the door leaving a jolted but too drunk to realize, Will. 

The group exited the building into the darkened street, Emma half carrying Lily who had apparently lost the ability to control her legs. They made it to the parked car in under five minutes in almost complete silence. Though being told to keep quiet Lily could not bring herself to shut up. The three girls had to listen to hushed tones of drunken melody. 

“Ruby, can you just drop Lily and I back at her place? I need to take care of her.” Emma asked politely hiding her irritation. 

“Sure thing, boss lady.” 

Like the walk, it didn’t take long to get to Lily’s apartment building. Emma ushered her girlfriend out of the car then turned to wave off her friends. 

“See you in class?”Belle asked

Emma nodded. 

“Wear clean clothes!” Ruby demanded with a smile.   
Emma shook her head then closed the door and wrapped Lily’s arm over her shoulder. 

“She is way too good for that girl.” Ruby announced shaking her head as she pulled away from the curb. 

After heaving Lily up three flights of stairs listening to her protests the entire way, Emma was two wrong words away from having a melt down. As if on cue.

“Why were you so rude to Will, Emma.” Lily interrogated in all her drunken glory as Emma sat her on the sofa. 

Emma looked at her with wide eyes for a moment. Had she really asked that? She’s drunk Emma, she doesn’t mean it. Keep calm, don’t lose your shit. You can have a nice, passive discussion in the morning with some coffee. Keep calm, calm...

She shook her head, willing herself not to respond. 

“I’ll be right back Lil, I’m gonna grab you some water. Wait here.”

Lily reached out for her. 

“Answ… Answer my question Em-ma! Why were you so rude to my co worker? He didn’t do anything to you. I think you are a mean drr-unk.”

That was it. 

“What the fuck are you talking about Lil? I had two drinks. But you! I wouldn’t be surprised if all the bars are closed tomorrow thanks to you.” 

“Wh- what’s that suppose to mean?”

“It fucken means, you about drank Boston dry. You are wasted off your ass. Then you have the audacity to come looking for me while hanging all over some man! Who was non stop feeling you up. With your allowance I might add. Now you telling me i’m a mean drunk? What the fuck Lil!” 

“Emmaa, you are being so ridiculous.”

“How am I the one being ridiculous? I have been helping you since you fell into the damn bar. You embarrassed me in front of my friends, disrespected me by flirting with some dude right next to me.”

Hardly paying attention at all Lily lays back on the sofa, resting her head on a plush pillow and closing her eyes. 

Like it had been drunkenly rehearsed. “Bebe you are acting the jealous girlfriend. Will is just...Is just a good friend.” 

Emma stood in her girlfriends living room in awe at her insensitivity. Even drunk her friends cared more than Lily did. The person that was suppose to love her the most. The person that was suppose to care the most. Wordlessly she turned and walked out of the room. Locking herself in the bathroom to gather her wits. 

This wasn’t who Lily was, most of the time anyway. She could be a sweet, loving and doting girlfriend when she really put her mind to it. Ruby was forever on about how she shouldn’t have to, put her mind to it. It was difficult to let her go when Lily was the first person who made Emma feel like she was important at a time in her life when she had been so desperately in need of love and acceptance. 

Will is just a good friend. They were both drunk. 

Pushing down any future resentment towards Lily’s co-worker, Emma emerged from the bathroom with a wet washcloth, and the last two advil. Lily wasn’t groaning just yet but she had managed to find a ballcap and tug it down over her eyes as Emma brought her the supplies. 

“You used to be so different,” Lily stated, not bothering to lift her head or gauge Emma’s response. “Ever since you became friends with that mutt.”

“That mutt drove your drunk ass home.” 

“She’s always pointing her nose up at me and you let her.”

“I don’t let her do anything. I’m not her master.” 

“We were kids when we fell in love.” Lily snarls, and Emma can already see her warming up to really explode. “Love…” she huffs

“Yeah, crazy right?”

“Yeah. I used to love you.” 

Emma’s jaw clenched and her tears fell silently as she assisted Lily in take her medicine. “I don’t see anyone else around to take care of you.” 

“No one asked you to. When was the last time you did laundry? You reek.” 

“Good night Lily.” Emma said. Every now and then Lily would get like this after a few too many drinks, Emma had learned to tolerate it for the most part. She knew tomorrow Lily would come running back spouting apology after apology, kiss after kiss. Just tonight she wasn’t having it.

Right now, Emma needed space and her girlfriend needed to sleep it off. She had come thinking she would stay the night but now it didn’t seem like the best option. She grabbed one of Lily’s jackets and walked out the front door, leaving her sleeping girlfriend comfortably on the sofa. It was a bit of a walk back home but if it got too chilly she could always call Ruby. 

Exiting the building, she made half a block before the cold became unbearable. She shivered in the jacket, scolding herself for grabbing obviously the thinnest jacket Lily owned. She reached for her phone and was utterly confounded and disappointed when she found nothing but an empty pocket. 

“Fuck!” She yelled. 

She thought back, searching her mind for a location. 

The bar... I must have set it down at the table before grabbing Lily. 

“Fuck.” 

Irritation flooded her. It was cold, she was pissed and she couldn’t call her friend for a ride. She had no choice but to go back to the bar and retrieve her phone then call for rescue. Breathing into her hands she pushed forward hoping to make it the 5 blocks back to the bar before it closed. 

Seeing Emma for the first time always made Regina ache in unexplainable ways. Once you’ve lost someone, you are never truly the same. Each time Emma had come back, always seemed too short a duration, and each time she was gone too long. The pain always unsubsiding and ever present. Though her heart remained for all intensive purposes, dead. Being around the blonde, she felt life being pumped back into her veins. To Regina, Emma was a deadly sickness to which there was no cure.

It was late and Regina was making her rounds. She owned or partnered in several establishments in Boston, The Pour House Bar being one of them. Once a week she stopped by around closing time to walk the premises, collect the cash, balance the books and speak with her management. She made a habit of coming when there would be no patronage, the less people the better. 

She arrived as the bar keep was cleaning off the counter tops and drying glasses. During closing time, the music and tv’s went off, ceiling lights on and all the lights in the room that gave it color doused.   
She greeted the barkeep with a single nod as she past. She was sure he thought it strange that the boss only came at night but she made it clear that she was in fact a very busy woman with a day job. She didn’t attempt to make friends with her employee’s, she knew them by their work ethic not their personalities. If there was ever a problem she handled it with the utmost professionalism and authority hinted with the smallest amount of kindness. 

Like always, she made her way straight to the back, sat herself down at a small desk to look over receipts and bills.

Emma had made it to the bar. No small feat in her mind, most of the way she had felt after each single step that she might at any time turn into a human popsicle. She reached for the handle and gave a gentle tug but was met with a locked door and bright “Closed” sign that she had somehow overlooked upon approach. 

Fuck! Could this night get any worse?

She leaned forward to peer through the tinted glass. “Oh thank god.” Relieved she saw movement. Quickly she knocked on the glass as hard as she could without breaking it.   
She waited a moment. No response. Of course she understood why a barkeep would be reluctant to answer a stranger pounding on the door after closing time. Surely drunkards came calling after hours, probably regularly, searching for more of their vice. 

She justified her actions. Her situation was entirely different, so she had to try. Walking her way back to the dorms was the very last thing she wanted to do. She pounded again, and again. Nonstop until finally the bar man came to the window. He pointed to the “Closed” sign as if it weren’t obvious. 

Emma rolled her eyes, then remembered she had to be polite. She wanted him to open the door not walk away leaving her stranded. She gave a saddened frown while rubbing her hands together trying to convey as plainly as possible. “I am a woman, I need help and it’s cold as fuck.” Without saying a word. 

It must have worked, he slowly opened the door just enough to be able to hear her speak. A cold waft of air engulfed him and then dissipated in the warmth of the indoors.

 

Regina stared at the paper in front of her, for the countless years she has been doing it, it never got any less tedious. Her concentration was broken by a loud and persistent pounding, she squinched up her nose in annoyance. The pounding continued, her irritation grew. 

“Will someone please stop that incessant pounding!” She demanded. 

“Yes, ma’am.” She heard from the front.   
After another quick succession of knocking, it stopped altogether. He must have handled whatever it was. She went back to her balancing, but before she could pen anything else, a familiar scent filled the air. Knowing who it belonged to, she instantly rose from her chair as if the air itself were calling her name.   
Emma still standing outside trying to explain to the decidedly dim witted man, her situation. 

“Look lady just come back in the morning and we will get this all sorted out, okay. Call one of your friends to help you out.”

“Ugh, have you heard anything i’ve said? I left my phone here! How the hell am I supposed to make a call when my phone is somewhere in there!” 

He was about to answer and no doubtedly say something stupid but was interrupted by a strong female voice. 

“Leroy open the door.” Regina demanded. 

 

Putting on her mask, she held in her excitement. Her Emma was here… 

“Leroy open the door.” 

Leroy scolded but did as he was told and moved aside. She was met with a shivering Emma standing wide eyed in confusion. She had to fight the urge to take Emma into her arms rescuing her from the apparent, frigid night air. 

“Professor Mills?” 

“Miss Swan. What pray tell, are you doing out so late on a night like this?” She opened the door to let the cold girl in. 

“I, ah… I left my phone here earlier this evening. I was hoping I could have it back so I can call a friend to come pick me up.”

“Your phone... Alright. Leroy is there a phone in the lost and found?”  
Leroy moved from his place to the back of the bar then grabbed a box. 

“I have a phone here, yes. But Ma’am before I give it to her I think she should describe it to me first. Just so’s I know she ain’t a thief.”

Regina nodded. 

Emma rolled her eyes even though she understood that it was standard practice. 

“Black Iphone 7 with a red cover. If you hit the home button there is a swan drawing set as the lock screen. ” She stated matter of factly. 

Leroy looking semi defeated and slouched as he exited from behind the bar then made his way to the two women. Under the mask of suspicion Regina was able to watch the blonde and take her in, much closer than she was able to during their last meeting. She allowed herself quick glances at the blonde’s figure, looking for any sign of a difference. Something that may indicate that this in fact was not her Emma, but all she found were more indications that she was indeed her Emma. The only Emma… 

“Thank you.” Emma said after Leroy placed the phone in her hand. 

“Now that I think about it, I do remember you. You were here with the girls, then another girl showed up drunker than all get out. She fell through the door with that man.”

Emma sighed at the memory. “Yes, that was us.” She smiled hoping that was the end of the conversation. No such luck. 

“Nice of you to go help her, that must have been so embarrassing. Though she probably didn’t care much. Friend of yours?” Leroy poked fun. 

“Ah, yea… That’s my girlfriend. She had a bit too much to drink.” Emma tried to excuse.

It went unnoticed, but Regina cringed at the word, ‘girl friend.’

“No shit.” he answered forgetting his boss standing two feet away. 

“Leroy.” Regina said in a muffled shout.   
“Please, go finish up your closing duties.”

At the reminder he jumped into action wordlessly leaving Regina and Emma alone in the front room of the bar. 

They stood awkwardly in silence. 

Girlfriend repeated over and over again in her mind. No matter. Small inconvenience.   
She assured herself. 

More than anything Regina wanted to let herself slip back into old habits. It would be so easy to force her to remember. Blood carried memories, and all Emma would need is a taste. A single drop and an ocean of memories from lifetimes past would come flooding back and she once again would belong to Regina. 

Her mind and body were unyielding. She had to conjure all her strength just to hold herself back. The smell of her body, the smell of her blood. The vampire even smelled the reaction she was causing the blonde to have. Somewhere deep inside a part of her knew Regina and was drawn to her. It was a comforting thought, but not enough to restrain her much longer. At least not in this proximity. She had to get away or she was at risk of losing control. She had to initiate the blondes departure. 

“Well, is there anything else I can do you for you Miss Swan?” 

“Eh, no.. I guess that’s it.” Was what she said. But what she actually wanted to say was something along the lines of… You manage a bar at night. You drive me insane and I have no idea why and I don’t like it. 

“Actually, Professor. Do you mind if i stay inside while I make a phone call? It’s freezing outside and it should only take a moment.”

Regina nodded in affirmation and removed herself from the immediate area.

Emma smiled then dialed her most definitely sleeping roommate. It rang several times and Emma was beginning to worry her loyal roommate wouldn’t answer. After a few more rings, it went to voicemail, Emma stood disappointed. 

“Do I really need to tell you what to do?” She really needs to change that recording.

“Rub’s wake up. I could really use a ride home.” 

Emma unwilling to admit defeat tried the girl again. Again, nothing. 

“Fuck.” she said under her breath. 

Regina with her unnaturally gifted hearing ability heard the Emma’s plea.   
Stay out of it … She can find another way home. 

Consigned to her fate of walking home, Emma turned back to Regina who had been standing in the distance pretending not to be paying attention. 

“Thank you for letting me in Professor, I appreciate your help. I’ll be on my way now.”

The brunette stood there fighting with herself. She should help the blonde, she wants to help the blonde. 

“Of course Miss Swan.” She approaches the girl then ushers her towards the doors. Regina pulled open the unlocked door letting Emma out, she smiled as she passed then turned out toward the darkness.

“Miss Swan wait... Take this.” Regina took off her expensive looking jacket and handed it to the girl. The vampiress didn’t need it anyway, it was only for show. For a moment Emma hesitated. But pride be damned, it was cold and she had a long walk ahead of her. 

“Thank you Professor, I really appreciate your kindness.” As she slid herself into the fitted, fluffy coat. 

“Don’t. Kindness would be me simply offering you a ride home. But in all honestly, I don’t care too nor do I have the time. Hence the jacket.” Regina said stiffly. 

Emma stood blank, the woman’s candor caught her off guard. 

“Well, thank you all the same.” She turned and walked down the dimly light street.

Regina watched her until she was a safe distance away. She glanced around the area, making sure there were no stray humans in the vicinity then dropping her facade, she surged forward. It only took her moments to silently catch up with the blonde. Through the centuries she had perfected the art of being invisible. Her steps tread the asphalt noiselessly, she had no need to breathe so no breath disturbed the air around her. She hide her frame in darkness, in trees on buildings, slowly following her Emma home.


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Aloha everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but I hope you with be happy with this chapter. This one in particular took a lot of thought. It was kinda difficult to write to be honest, lol… It’s quite long, my longest yet, in fact. I hope you all like it and don’t get too pissed at me when you’ve finished. Please, feel free to comment and let me know what you think. Please forgive and over look any errors, this was written with little sleep and copious amount of coffee. (And I don’t even like coffee.) As usual, a great big thanks to Brittany! Couldn't do it without her. Quick Author’s note at the end, please read. ;)

 

Chapter 6  
16th century (late 1590’s)

The young vampire would spend the first years of her new life in that cave. A reclusive vampire living off half dead animals and memories of her past life that were becoming more obscure by the day. In her mind, what she had become, what she was forced to be, was an abomination. More than anything she yearning to end her existence, for the hollowness of death. For a time she ignored the animals brought to her, they expired and began piling up. The smell was repulsive. 

Starving herself came with some unexpected side effects, none of which were even close to the outcome she had been hoping for. She had never been lucky in life, why should it be any different after death. 

Each week that she did not consume blood her mind fogged, intelligent thought was unachievable. Her mind reduced to its primal instincts, a battle raging every moment of everyday. Her humanity craving nihility, her monster craving sustenance. No matter the length of time she refused to feed, she did not expire. She only became more of the monster she feared and hated.

To the great pleasure of the Chief, his monster began to eat again. He was not blind to her struggle, he knew she was different from the rest of her kind. Unlike all the rest, her human emotion carried over, became greater, felt deeper. He knew he needed to make her understand that there was another way to live with her plight. She would not have to become a monster devoid of feelings. No, he needed to show this was only another plane of existence, she could live and love again. He needed her to and he would show her how. 

It was early evening, the sun was just beginning to set when Regina heard the familiar stride of the old man. Different from all the times before, he walked weighed down. He carried something in his arms in consequence leaving deeper impressions in the earth on which he strode. He was also followed by, at her count, six younger men. She watched him and the others come into view, he was carrying a young child in his arms. 

At the threshold of her cavern, he motioned wordlessly to the men to remove the barrier. She realized what he was doing. 

“Old man, have you lost your mind!”

He ignored her, the men continued to removed the logs one by one, leaving a very unobstructed entryway. He commanded the young men to return to their village, leaving he and the child alone. She retreated further back into her cave, fearful that she would lose control. Then the fool of a man did something that scared her more than anything so far yet in her new life. He put the child down and stepped away. 

The helpless child, the innocent child, happily strode about the cave opening, smiling curiously. He entered without a second thought, never imagining that a monster may lay within its depths. 

“Collect your infant, you fool!” She yelled at the unlistening man. 

Giggles, filled the cavern as the child heard the sound of the human voice. He joyfully advanced in it’s direction, the old man slowly following at a distance. The boy clumsily ran, almost tripping several times toward the female cowering in dim light. 

Regina was sure she was going to lose control and devour the little human stumbling towards her. She could smell his young blood, see his tiny veins that pumped the delicious liquid that she needed to survive. Still giggling, still slowly trotting towards her, she could retreat no further, she had reached the cave wall. She stared wide eyed as the little chubby human boy progressed further towards her, she felt sick to her stomach. Then… Then, he reached her. 

He latched onto her legs, pressing his tiny face to her cold skin. She felt his breath and the stickiness of what must have been saliva on her skin. She looked down at him, he had absolutely no idea what she was. Holding tightly to the back of her dirty legs, he gave her a gummy smile, he had only three teeth she noticed. A dribble of more saliva slid down the side of his open mouth. His little arms detached from her legs and he reached up, silently requesting an affectionate lift.

The old Chief stood by watching the scene unfold, he knew she would not hurt the boy. Still watching the boy as he smiled so wide at her, she noted what she was feeling and most importantly what she was not feeling. The hungry, uncontrollable rage was not present, she felt little to no urge to devour the boy reaching for her. Her eyebrow furrowed as she reached down to remove him from the legs. She lifted him then held him away from her body at eye level. She searched her inner self again. The tiniest itch nagged at her but nothing she could not force into submission. 

She walked forward toward the old man waiting no far away. 

“Here is your… Just, here.”

He couldn’t help but smile a little as he took the infant boy from her. “My grandson, Takoda. Friend to everyone.”   
He slung the boy to his side letting him rest his head on the old man shoulder. 

“You no longer have anything to fear from yourself.”

Though she would hate to admit it, this evening had shown her that she was able to control her urges. 

“Why would you risk a life, especially one so young and so close to you?”

“I had no doubt that you would return him to me unharmed, and I needed to show this to you. It was the only way that would make you understand. You are only the monster you choose to be, and you can choose to be something entirely new to this world. Yes, you were born of monsters and death, but as I said before. You are special, in a category all your own.”

She stood by him, somewhat puzzled at the amount of trust he had shown her, but thankful nonetheless though she would not speak to it. Yet… 

“You are now free to go where you choose. Though I hope you return, there is much I can teach you.”

“And the prophecy.” She reminded him.

“Yes, and that.” he smiled. 

She gave him a quick glance with a thin smile before rushing into the now darkened night. Now all she could think of was how good it felt to finally stretch her legs and run.

 

Present Day 

Emma made her way down the street in the direction of her home. Faint, opaque light barely illuminated her way. She had tried fruitlessly to get ahold of Ruby again, but as expected. Nothing… She shoved her hands into the pockets of the jacket her professor had not so kindly provided. The professor… Their interaction had been semi off-putting to say the least. 

Why had she acted so aloof? That was not at all, the personality I had expected, though i’m not sure what exactly i was expecting. But whatever it was, that sure as hell wasn’t it. She did give you the jacket, and let you into get the phone. That’s something. Maybe she is Bipolar?

She continued on down the street in thought about the very person that was at that moment, silently following her home. Regina easily stayed out of sight, watching the blonde carefully, taking note of all her facial expressions and body language. Regina had always been able to read the blonde by her expressions, and now was no different. She may not carry her memories over from past lives, but she certainly carried over her mannerisms, the essence of what made Emma, Emma. 

Her stalker remained hidden when she reached the destination, her humble domicile. She entered her building without the faintest idea that she had been followed at all. 

Loud, fast foot falls resounded through the small apartment as Ruby ran into her roommate’s room and launched herself into Emma’s bed. She made a point to land almost directly on the blond’s stomach, semi painfully bring her back into existence. Obviously she knew, her and Lily had gotten into a fight by her presence in her own bed, and she was obviously, probably more than slightly happy about it. 

“So what hap… She abruptly stopped mid sentence and her facial expression changed from mildly happy to overly pissed off. 

“What the hell is that god awful smell?” She demanded. 

“Wha… I’m just freaking waking up! I’m sorry I didn’t prepare myself by brushing my teeth before you decided to assault me this early.” 

“No, not that!”Ruby stated as she leaned down to smell her roommate. Her expression almost instantly changed into a look of utter disgust.

“Emma, you smell like death. What have you been doing?” Though, she knew the answer to that question even before she asked. She knew exactly who she had somehow come in contact with. She looked around and saw the borrowed jacket, slew over the edge of her roommates bed. In reaction she uncharacteristically stalked off without another word leaving a confused Emma. 

“Crazy lady.” She mouthed before smothering her face back into her pillow for another stolen five minutes before she absolutely had to get out of bed and go to class. 

 

They all got through half the day without issue, though Ruby had to consciously keep herself from vomiting at the smell of the of the jacket Emma had been carrying around. She had hoped to find some time to return it the professor, but as now she had not had the time. So, she would make time. 

During lunch, Emma made a point to eat quicker than usual. She needed to create a window of to return the jacket to the mysterious Professor. It wouldn’t be a lie if she admitted that she was looking forward to seeing the strange women for reasons she could not understand. It was like her body just reacted on its own at the thought of the woman, and around her, it was the tiniest bit unsettling. 

She finished up her lunch. “Hey guys, i’ll be back in a few.”

Belle, like a normal friend did not question her. Just shook her head in confirmation and continued eating with a book help up to her face. 

“Where you going?” Her not so normal friend questioned. 

“Ah… I’ll be back in a bit.” Was all she answered before walking away jacket in hand.

“Just drop it in her classroom and leave, Em.” Ruby shouts after her.

Emma pretended not to hear her as she walked away, she was determined to find her Professor before her next class. 

She traversed the hallways at a quick but non alarming pace, after a few minutes she reached her destination. She stood in the doorway of the large lecture hall, she saw the woman she had been searching for sitting at her desk focused on stacks of papers. Emma took a deep breath and pushed herself forward. 

Regina heard the disturbance in the air,she instinctively looked up though she didn’t have to know who it was that sought her out. She froze as a very awkward looking Emma walked towards her. She knew she would return the jacket but she hadn’t anticipated it be today. Shame, she had been so wonderfully focused on her work. She had gone almost a whole hour without thinking of the blonde. No chance of regaining that.

Compose yourself, she is your student, nothing more. 

Emma stalked over to the brunette, jacket in hand. Upon reaching the desk she only stood there, equally as awkward as her stride. They both waited for the other to speak, it was a long thirty seconds, and Emma was just uncomfortably staring at the other woman. 

“Ehm… Was there something you needed?” Regina vocalized. 

Her trace broken at the sound. ”Ah, yea… I just came to return your, ah… Your jacket.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Regina got up from her sitting position and walked toward the stationary blonde. She stood uneasily, jacket still clutched tightly against her body as the brunette approached confidently. Regina saw the effect she was having on the other woman, she enjoyed it immensely.   
She wanted to see more, to feel more, she moved closer, stopping mere inches from her. She took the time to inhale her in every way possible. Emma’s nervousness was all over her, she was radiating, feverish even. Inwardly, Regina smiled, it was a conquering feeling. 

“I’ll take that back now, thank you. Unless of course, you plan on keeping it, that is.” Regina said with a smile. 

As if cold water had once again been thrown on her, Emma snapped back into reality, her arms holding the jacket launched outward toward the brunette. 

“Um, here… Thank you for letting me use it.” Emma stammered as Regina took the garment from her. Between the exchange, some how skin made contact with skin and they were both taken to the past. 

 

1607   
Jamestown Virginia

Emma Swan sat in her small cabin engrossed in a book being read by candlelight, when she felt a faint wisp of a breeze as it moved through the interior of her home. She didn’t pay it much mind, the wind frequently paid her a friendly visit, affectionately cooling the summer nights. But she was not expecting a female voice to accompany the friendly wind. She visibly jumped at the broken silence. 

“What are you reading?” Asked a smooth voice. 

“Oh god!” The blonde fearfully clutched her chest. 

Regina smiled. “My apologies. I did not mean to frighten you.” 

Emma took in her unannounced visitor, who was perched on the stool below her window, bathed in the moonlight at her back. Recognizing the woman that had saved her, she caught her breath and looked down at the book she was holding. 

“Romeo and Juliet.” She finally responded. 

“Oh. I don’t think I’ve heard of that one. Who is the author?” Regina tilter her head in curiousity.

“Ms. Regina, I had no idea you were coming. If I had some time to prepare I would have made something to offer you. As I am, I haven’t much.” 

“You did invite me. Did you not?” Regina said with a mischievous grin. 

“Well yes, but I wasn’t expecting you at such a late hour.” 

“You do not have to play host to me. I am merely here to talk.”

“About?” The blonde questioned. 

“Romeo and Juliet.” She smiled in response. 

“Ah, about that. I would appreciate you keeping that to yourself please. As you probably know, women in general are not allowed to read anything but the Bible, least of all Shakespeare.” Emma said disapprovingly. 

“You mean to say the fumbling, crazed playwright is now writing novels?” 

“Where have you been? He has written some memorable plays i’ll have you know. , Romeo and Juliet his best to date, in my opinion.”

“It’s been sometime since i’ve been to England.” The brunette frowned. 

Emma thought back… Regina’s timeline made no sense to her but she did not question it. She would tell her if she so desired. 

“Would you like to hear about it?” Emma offered.

“Please.” Regina answered, moving to sit on the stool she had been perched on. 

Emma smiled and began. “In fair Verona lived two feuding families, the Capulets and the Montague’s. Romeo the son of the Montague and Juliet the daughter of the Capulets fall into a deep, forbidden love.” 

Regina listens intently, being drawn in by the smooth voice of her story teller. She couldn’t help but think of how sweet the girl smelled. How delicious, no, how beautiful she looked in the flickering candle light. She paid close attention to her lips as they moved, perfectly articulating, channeling such emotion as each word slid from her exquisite mouth. She shook her head trying to chase away such madness. 

“Violent passions have violent ends.” She quoted. 

“Juliet took a poison that would make seem like she took her own life. Her family would think her dead and she would be free to be with her love. But her lover Romeo didn’t hear of this and truly thought she had taken her life. And in turn he took his life, not wanting to live without his dear love. Juliet woke to find her beloved dead at her side. Overcome by sadness and grief, she unsheathed the dagger from her his belt and plunged it into her body, begging death to take her to her lost love.” 

Even telling the story Emma began to tear up. “It’s so beautiful. They loved each other so much, that they were completely unwilling to live without one another. ” 

Regina giggled. “They were shortsighted and foolish.” 

Of all the answers Emma could have expected, this was not among them. “Pardon?” She questioned, thinking maybe she didn’t hear the women correctly. 

“They were moronic. So dazed by a childlike emotion, that they gave up the precious gift of life simply because of poor communication and the ridiculous notion of true love.”

“Moronic? They were in love!” Emma defended the fictional characters. 

Regina sat chuckling, amused by her new friends irritation. “Just think how much longer they could have lived if they simply understood that some love is not meant to be. If they had amicably parted ways in the understanding that their love would have more than likely not have lasted past the fiery passions of youth.”

“Well, we will never know.” Emma pointed out, still visibly annoyed.

“Is that the ending? No telling of a winged, passionate, reunion in the sky? Or a buring affair in the lake of fire? Hmm, opportunity missed.” Regina shrugged. 

“Your bitterness towards love speaks volumes, Ms. Regina.” 

“I guess, it does.” she laughed in return. “Come with me Ms. Swan, I’d like to show you something.” Regina stood from her stool to move toward the door. 

“Go with you to where, may I ask?” The blond questioned 

“Will you please just be a good girl and follow me?” 

Emma jested. “I’m not sure I trust you.” 

“I would hope not… We’ve only just met.” Regina grinned. “Though as it happens, I am in need of some company while I run an errand, and you seem to be available. Unless of course you have another pressing matter to attend?” 

“You have an errand to run in the middle of night.” Emma questioned, decided to play along, answering with as snarky a tone as she could conjure. She then strode out the door ready for an adventure. 

They walked together bathed in moonlight through the forest. It had been relatively easy to get outside the palisade walls, as Emma had found weeks before, a blemish just wide enough for a body to fit through. For Regina, it of course seemed mundane, but she followed nonetheless. Outside the walls, the brunette led the way, weaving a path through the trees, she had to make a conscious effort to be human like. Commanding her chest to rise and fall, as if breathing. Walking at a pace much, much slower than she had moved since her rebirth, and blinking. For a time they walked in silence, before Emma spoke up. 

“So, what did you do to Killian that night? I haven’t seen him since.”

“Oh? He hasn’t returned? I simply and plainly, explained that it was not gentleman like to chase defenseless woman through the forest at night the left him to his own folly.” Regina explained calmly, giving nothing away that would hint at her lie. 

“I was not defenseless!” 

“Oh really? Well, I suppose I could have imagined the pleading and whimpering.” Regina laughed. 

“I most certainly, did not whimper.” The blonde said failing a defense. 

Regina gave a look of disbelief. “You whimpered.” 

Realizing she wouldn't win. “There may have been a… A brave whimper. Yes, a brave whimper.” The blonde smiled unconvincingly. 

Regina giggled. “A brave whimper, indeed.” 

 

“Anyway, he must have gone to the other village, down river. Too prideful to return.” Emma reasoned. 

“You mean, too shamed.” 

“Killian… Killian can be a good man, he just has too much to drink at times and he loses control I hope one day he...” Emma was cut off. 

“Shh… We are here.” Regina pointed out. 

The brunette stopped at the edge of a short drop, just below sat a moon illuminated lake. Emma came to stand as her side, close enough that Regina noted Emma’s heart rate had changed as her breath hitched. They both stood silent, staring out at the landscape before them. 

It was a cloudless night, the shining moon hung low in the starry sky, reflecting a pale, white glow on the motionless waters. A sight Regina had seen many times, but had never shared with another. 

“How did you find this mesmeric place?” Emma asked. 

“Once, on one of my many wandering, I just happened upon it.” 

“It’s absolutely wonderous, like something out of a story.” Emma said, not taking her eyes off the panorama before her. 

As Regina had been there many times, she was now use to the stunning sight, it was not what held her gaze. Not so obviously, she stared at the paragon beside her. Blond hair, turned a silvery, luminous in the moonlight. Skin so fair, but effervescent, lips full and enticing. She sighed.

Forcing the forbidden thoughts from her head, she began to undress. Casually, she removed her thin shirt and slid her cotton pants off the waded into the still waters. Emma stared, semi shocked at the naked woman as she moved through the water facing away from her. She followed the woman with her eyes, regarding the contrast of her dark hair as it lay draped along her shoulders, to her pale, shimmering skin. For a fleeting moment, she wondered how soft it would feel it she ran her hands along it. Her trance was disrupted by a soft, raspy voice. 

“Well, are you coming in or not?” Regina asked.

Emma thought for a moment, then answered by beginning to remove her clothes. Regina respectfully averted her eyes. She was alerted that the blonde had finished by the slight whimper as she entered the cold water. She waited another moment to give the blonde time to immerse herself in the chilly water, providing some coverage. 

“Ehm…” Was the undisclosed cue that Regina could now face the blonde. 

“Do you come here and swim often?” Emma asked nonchalantly moving about in the water.

“I do. It’s a place where I can clear my mind and gather my thoughts.” 

“I had no idea such a beautiful place existed so near to our village.”

“Not many do, most people don’t take the time to look.” The brunette answered. 

“Well, I’m glad you did. And I’m thankful that you’ve deemed me worthy enough to experience it with you.” 

Regina just smiled in response, then dipped her head under the surface of the water briefly. She resurfaced, making a point to take in a breath to keep up her charade, she knew Emma was watching. She glanced at the blonde, who was so obviously considering following Regina’s example. 

“Afraid to wet your hair?” Regina asked playfully. 

“What? No! It’s… It’s just quite frigid, is all.” 

“Ah.” Regina acknowledged, nodding with a mischievous smile. She then sat back further in the water and forced both her arms forward pushing copious amounts of the chilled water all over the unsuspecting blonde. 

Shocked, Emma shrieked on contact and Regina didn’t even attempt to suppress her laughter. After the initial traumatism wore off, Emma started to giggle right along with Regina. Then began the glorious battle of splashes, giggling and smiling lasting well into the night. 

 

Present Time

Emma jumped back, leaving the jacket in her professors trembling hands. Her eyes wide as she stared in silence.

“I… Did you…” She mumbled, shaking her head. Something had just passed between the two of them, and she was frightfully aware if it. Not a coherent word was spoken as Emma quickly exited leaving Regina alone in the lecture hall. 

Regina stood, her feet deadlocked in place. She slowly brought the jacket up and held it against her masked face. She inhaled, taking in the essence of the woman, of whom about she knew only one truth. That no matter how many centuries have passed or would pass, she would for as long as this world kept spinning and the sun keep rising, be totally and completely consumed by love for her. 

The jacket still held in place, her mask and pageantry began to melt away, leaving only a broken woman on display. Tears fell freely, being soaked up by the expensive cloth that she held to her face, as muffled sobs escaped from beneath it. Would this pain ever cease? As many times as she’s gone through this, it never got any easier. 

Too despondent to care whether anyone would see or not, with a flick of her wrist, her papers were collected and packed. Blinds closed, chalkboard cleaned and chairs pushed in neatly. She was not going to finish off her day in this state of mind. She needed to feed and to banish away her sadness with a strong chaser. 

 

Unsure of exactly what happened not moments ago with her professor, Emma all but ran down the halls unconcerned with a destination. Subconsciously or not, she ended up at the school’s main entrance, and without so much as a look back, she exited the building. 

The walk back to her apartment helped cool her off, it also hadn’t escaped her notice that she had been doing a lot of walking lately. She laughed at the thought. Upon reaching her humble abode, she wasted no time in kicking off her shoes and collapsing into her much yearned for bed. She wanted the entire world to just evaporate away taking all her apparent craziness with it. 

She, more than anything didn’t want to think about what had happened with her female professor. Whatever kind of insanity that was, she wanted none of it, nor did she want any of the emotions that came partnered with it. 

In bed she lay, head covered by her thick pillow, as if it did anything to chase away her thoughts. The event passed through her mind again, for what must have been the ten thousandth time. The only way she could possibly describe it would be as a memory on crack. She felt the coldness of the water as it spread across her body upon entering the lake, the slight breeze in the air and the flutter in her stomach at the sight of the beautiful woman awaiting her. Even through all of this, she was absolutely positive that had never happened. How could she remember something so completely if it had never happened? 

Thankfully her thoughts were mercifully interrupted by a loud knock at the door. She considered not answering it, but decided to take whatever distraction was dealt her. She forced herself up, leaving the lunacy in the bed and ambled to the door. Once open, before she could really see who she was dealing with, a slender body was in her arms. At contact she realized who it was, and had to force away thoughts on how misfortunate she was on this particular day. 

“I am so, so sorry bebe. I was so drunk and I didn’t mean a word I said last night.”

“How did you find me Lil?”

Surprised by Emma’s indifferent reaction, the apologetic Lily removed herself from her girl friends arms just enough to be able to look the blonde in the eyes. 

“I went to the school looking for you and met up with Belle and your other beastly friend. Belle mention that you hadn’t been in any of your classes after lunch, that was the last time they had seen you. So I thought maybe i’d find you here.”

Emma inwardly cursed her luck. She had wanted a distraction but this situation wasn’t much better than the one she was trying to escape. But, it had to be dealt with, and now is as good a time as any. She still loved Lily, deeply, but she had come to the conclusion that a break would be beneficial to their struggling relationship. 

“Look Lily, I think we…” She was cut off by a hand that had been placed gently in her lips. 

“Before you say anything else, I want you to go into your closet and pick out your very best dress. I am taking you out for a night on the town. We are first stopping at Neptune’s Oyster to have dinner then off to The Royal to finish off with a few drinks and some dancing. It’s our date night babe, and I want to show you how special you are to me.” 

 

With a little reluctance at first, Emma had decided being wined and dined wasn’t such a bad idea. She had chosen her favorite red dress, it was tight but classy. She wore her hair in a loose bun and adorn on her ears small silver earrings. She didn’t often dress up, but when she did, she knew she looked good. 

Obviously Lily was happy with the way she had cleaned up, all through dinner she could hardly keep her hands off the blonde. They shared a beautiful feast for two, accompanied with a lovely red wine. They talked of old times, reminiscing in the old, first fiery passions at the start of their love. Words flowed easily with the help of the intoxicant. 

“Em, thank you for coming out with me tonight. I know I can be difficult at times, but I truly love you and I hope you know that.” 

Emma sat in silence for a moment before responding. She had come prepared to enjoy the evening but to be on guard. She had just about made up her mind to tell Lily that they would benefit from a break, but this was becoming less of a possibility as the night wore on. It had felt good to be the center of one’s affections again, to be the only thing that mattered in the eyes of your love. Her body missed the gentle touches, gestures and hand holding. At the end of the day, she knew she loved Lily, they had been through so much together and she had been the only constant through all the shit. So how could she not love her? She had been the one that stayed when almost everyone else abandoned her. 

“I know Lil, and I love you too. Let’s just forget the past couple of days and move forward, yea?” 

Lily smiled wide and nodded. 

The rest of dinner went smoothly, they finished off the bottle of wine then decided it was time to move the party for two a place where they could be a bit more, active. Upon leaving, Emma had smartly suggested they Uber to The Royale, instead of risking a pull over which no doubt would ruin the night. So they waited curbside hand in hand for their requested ride. 

Once getting to the club, they were able to skip the long line people waiting after Lily slyly slipped the bouncer at the door a fifty with a quick kiss on the cheek. 

“Thanks Jefferson.” 

He just winked in response as he pushed a guy back who had tried to follow the two in as a third party. 

The club was high end, a far cry from the small, sweaty shacks Emma was used to. It resembled an old style theater, accented with a hint of 21st century deacor. There were tables and small sofas dotted around the bar itself, all filled with drinking guests. The music reverberated off the walls with amazing clarity, they must have been built specifically to boost the acoustics. 

The music played was a mixture of house and pop, obviously enjoyable due to the number of people dancing to it. The dance floor was spacious and bathed in neon lights, along with rhythmically timed lasers, it was quite the sight. A large brightly glowing sign that read,”Guilty,” hung high above the heads of the dancers. An invitation for all, to step out of the world they called home and into a world of The Royale Dance Floor. A world where one’s deepest, dirtiest guilty pleasures were celebrated, modified and shared. 

Lily about dragged the gaping Emma to the bar and ordered six shots of a drink called, The Alice in Wonderland. The bar keep promptly returned with the order. If Emma had asked what was in the drink she had been given, she would have been told it was a mixture of; Grand Marnier, Tequila and Tia Maria. The first one went down smoothly enough, it tasted like oranges and coffee. Lily insisted they down the second and third in quick succession, they were a tad harder to force down than the first, but she did it. 

“Please babe, let’s go dance?” Lily begged. 

Determined to make this night wonderful, Emma replied by taking a hold of her girl friends hand and leading her to the crowded dance floor. 

The girls started on the floor awkwardly swaying, acclimating themselves to the movement and the changing rhythms. The crowd was large so there was little room for the two to spread out, not that it really bothered them. As the alcohol ran through their bodies, movement became easier, they drew closer to one another. Emma felt the shift in her body, the intoxicating drink softening constricted muscles, she felt light, carefree and confident. She started to move more provocatively, running her hands along her own body and with her eyes inviting her girlfriend to do the same. 

Like lovesick strangers they stared at one another hungrily taking in each motion, every movement in correspondence to the vibration of the song. Surrounded by the frenzied, hyperactive, breathless dancers, all delirious to anything but the hypnotic music. Heat filled the space, slick sweat covered skin making bodies glisten in the ever changing neon lights. “We found love,” and like a switch being flipped they went from observing to eagerly reaching. Hungrily seizing the other in a commanding need to touch and be touched. Feral like, they fervently searched each other’s bodies for skin to grab, skin to hold.  
Their foreheads met, each short of breath as they swayed in each other's arms to the pulsating music. Lily ran her hands up Emma’s neck, one settling at the base of head and the other in anchored in her hair. Emma’s stomach jumped at the anticipation of what she knew was about to happen. Zealously, Lily pulled the blonde forward until their lips crashed together. Thirstily they drank each other in, not separating as they continued to move with the music. This had been the most contact they’d had in some time, so it was like rediscovering a known land all over again for the both of them. They knew people were watching, they didn’t care. But they didn’t know, that one person sitting solitary in a booth was paying particularly close attention. 

Regina Mills came to The Royale every once in a great while, usually when she had, had a difficult day. It was a great place to let off some steam and after today’s events, she needed something to take the edge off. Infrequently, she would come get her martini and find a solitary space to metaphorically hunt.

Her customary prey would need to meet a few qualifications to be considered. She preferred blondes, but it wasn’t a deal breaker, they also needed to be healthy and fit. She wasn’t going to consume the blood of one who looked like they survived on junk food alone. They would need to be pleasing to look at, as she would get no satisfaction if she could not watch a beautiful face in the throws of lustful passion. 

Killing her prey wasn’t something she did anymore, it honestly caused too many problems and these days she was all about simplicity. She used compulsion on her mark, but never with fatal intend, she hadn't done that in centuries. Not that Regina needed to do so but it moved things along quicker and presented less of an opportunity for someone less desireable to ruin her evening. Compulsion left no room for attachments, she took what she needed, drown herself in meaningless pleasures, to momentarily escape her reality. In the end she would break the compulsion, returning the mind to her one night stand, then plant false memories. It was an unappealing existence but it got her through. 

Tonight should have been no different, all she needed was trivial, meaningless, encounter to ease the pain. Everything was going as planned, she had her drink, a suitable booth, she had even spotted a potential mate for the night. It all crumbled by a single sight on the dancefloor.

At this moment, one of the most painful realities struck her in the undead chest. She soon realized, though her heart didn't beat, it could still break. And break it did, shattering into tiny shards, each one penetrating, lodging itself deep into her body. 

While the world and Regina were forced to carry on without Emma, one whom Regina now loathed, had delivered her True Love to the dancefloor in front of her. She felt her unbeating heart, squeeze and cripple with pain at the insistence of the invisible hand of life that choked the long-dead organ. At the blonde’s smile, time stopped. It began again at the meeting of lips that drove the pain throughout Regina’s entire being. 

She sat in her booth hypnotized, unable to tear her eyes from maddening sight. Emma, her Emma looked happy in the arms of her lover, a lover that was not her. Their love that had transcended life times, fell away into memory where it was now, likely to remain.

She watched until the two stumbled from the dance floor, hand in hand as they made their way to the exit. 

 

The dancing continued until Lily gave a Emma a look that spoke volumes. A look that wordlessly requesting they finish up their date back at their residence. After the decision was made to leave for the night, Uber was called and arrived minutes after.   
They sat in the back seat of a Prius holding hands, periodically sneaking knowing glances at each other while the driver attempted small talk. The ride was fast, they thanked their kind driver, tipped him well and hurried through the doors of Lily’s apartment building.   
Entering the front door was a complete blur of colliding bodies, they blindly, but masterfully made their way to the awaiting bed, then fell into it’s softness.   
At the moment there was nothing else in emma’s universe but Lily, kissing, touching, biting, exploring every inch of her body with her mouth, her tongue, her hands. A tingle rose from the depths of her core from the blissful touch, drawing out a wave lightning that ran the expanse of her body. Once she was completely freed of all cloth restraints, her body was now free and able to yield to her lover’s finger tips. Desperation filled her, to the point of critical mass, but Lily kept a slow pace, her unhurried hands bringing her to edge only to pull her back once more. 

Emma’s moans and whimpers begged for release, but time after time she was denied. Lily focusing her attentions everywhere but where Emma wanted it most, keeping her body in a wonderful state agitation. Her lips devoured the blonds; her tongue exploring her mouth, neck and ears. She trailed down, until her teeth found her breasts and nipples, her tongue tortured them until it drew a beseeching moan. 

With startling expertise, Lily’s strong arms forced open her legs, leaning down until her mouth met her centre. With gentle, rhythmic flicks of her tongue she brought Emma to the brink so many times, in rhapsody she lost count. She could do nothing but anchor herself to the bed by grasping at the sheets beneath her. Her hands finally slipped inside her, slowly, gradually, insistently penetrating her secrets. She removed her mouth, still, slowly pushing, reaching into the depths of her woman. 

With her free hand, Lily grabbed Emma’s wrist moving her hand to her own soft, wet folds where she let her linger and explore. She laughed at the greedy caresses as she leaned into Emma’s curling fingers, letting them sink in stretching to her core. 

Emma could feel herself flush as prickles of pleasure traveled through her body hinting at her crescendo. Lily moaned, her body arching atop Emma’s hand, as they moved in rhythmic synchronization. The end was coming, Emma felt her legs being to tremble, concentrating, she worked hard to keep pace inside her lover. With one last push, Emma fell into the abyss, plummeting, spirally out of control as the climax ripped through her body. She came shamelessly, a moan escaped her, she wanted to call out the name of face she saw so vividly in her mind as she rode out the residual waves of her peak. But to her utter shock and surprise, she found that she could not, for the name did not match the woman that had brought her to her zenith.

AN: Please remember this is a Swan Queen story through and through… Viva La Swan Queen!!


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Aloha! I am very sorry for the long wait but this chapter is pretty long. So hopefully that makes up for the wait. Also I have fudged some of the historical details, but they are pulled from true events. I really hope you all enjoy. As in all my writing, a lot of work went into this, but again this one in particular was a lot of work! Please forgive the mistakes, i’m kinda thinking there are plenty. ALSO, please, please let me know what you think. Seeing your comments literally makes my stomach jump for joy. Even criticism is appreciated as long as it’s in good taste. Once more, a quick thanks to me partner in crime Regina Bee! 

 

Chapter 7

The clock read 12:47 am when Ruby was abruptly awaken from a restless sleep. Roused by a silent, deep call, a command sent to her subconscious. As she sat up wiping the sweat from her brow, her body was engulfed by a slight burning sensation. An annoyance to say the least. Apparently, she was in a hurry. 

In the darkness of her shared apartment, she quietly, albeit hastily, readied herself for a journey, then exited the building without waking her sleeping roommate. She made her way down to the street and to the very edge of the forest tree line. Before she entered, she surveyed the area. Satisfied at the surrounding dark, emptiness, she let the hooded robe she was wearing fall to the ground, leaving her threadbare.

The heat from her core, chased away the chill of the night air. With a deep inhale, she pushed her body forward into a sprint, her toes digging deep into the dirt beneath her. Pushing herself further and into the blackness of trees she drank in the dark world around her, relishing the smell of pine and damp earth. Two bare feet left the dirt, leaping in a forward stride, four paws replaced them, nimbly landing in a continued sprint. There was nothing so intimate as releasing herself to the wild, setting her wolf free from beneath the surface. 

A deep, resounding howl broke the silence of the misty night, as a dark, black wolf ran freely through the trees. In this form everything was different, she shed her human fragilities and became greater. Her focus, intense and unyielding. Her honey, golden eyes brought, vision perfection, down to the tiniest creature to scurry beneath her, to the miles beyond her. Sense of smell and hearing, far superior to that of any being. 

In the distance she heard a familiar bay, within seconds joined by another, a deep chocolate brown wolf, with amber eyes. The two kept pace, mile after mile, until an abrupt stop at the edge of a great precipice in a large clearing. They stood atop a deep ravine, the bright moon above, illuminating an assembly of wolves at the center bottom. 

With a quick glance at one another the pair started down the gorge. 

A gathering of the entire pack was infrequent, they were only called upon when there a significant event or a new or old threat has made itself known. 

The two joined the congregation. 

 

Entering the circle they had formed, the entire pack was there. Though it was small, this pack was charged with the protection all the Eastern coastal states.This group had been together for many generation, only taking on the very few people born with the gift in their territory. 

Each wolf looked at one another in acknowledgement, then the wolf who had come with Ruby, impatiently spoke first.

“Why have we been summoned?”

The older, female alpha stepped forward. “The threat to our charges has resurfaced.”   
The statement instantly alerted Ruby.   
Shit, of course… Regina. 

“I apologize my Alpha , I did not think Regina Mills was a pack matter.” Ruby admitted. 

Granny alpha, eyed her for a moment. “Not the threat I was referring to, but she is also worth noting.” 

“What happened?” A gray wolf took a step forward to be heard. 

“Yes please, do tell. Some of us have traveled further than other’s and would like to get this over with.” Retorted a white wolf. 

“Be still Alice! Know your place.” Widow Lucas ordered as she stood to her full height making sure Alice was very aware of her position in the pack. 

“Gideon and Anita have spotted a Breathless along our borders.” 

“Where?” Ruby about yelled.

“Are you sure? They haven’t been seen for a generation. Why would they pop up now after all this time?” Alice asked doubtfully, though know one responded. 

Alice was by far the youngest in the pack, also the newest privy to the sensitive secrets the pack held. She meant well and was loyal to her charge, she was just young unmindful, and at times careless. 

“We all know why they have resurfaced, but what are we going to do about it?” Mulan spoke up. 

“I’m not entirely sure we should do anything as of yet. Just remain vigilant in our watch and stay close to your charge.” Granny answered. 

The wolves nodded. From pups, they had all learned the reason for their existence and were taught the old ways of the pack. Because of this, a strong sense of pride ran deep within them. 

“Update me on your charges. Alice since you are so talkative, you can begin.” The Alpha requested.

Obediently, Alice stepped forward. “Elsa is well. Still blissfully unaware of her abilities.” 

Granny nodded. “Graham?”

He stepped forward. “Neal, is aware of his abilities. Also, against my council he has become a hunter of the Breathless. He is quite proficient at defending himself, and I stay as close as he allows me. Recently he has entertained thoughts of contacting others but I inform him, they are unaware of their true nature. He seems to be satisfied with this. I am still unsure as to how exactly his memories returned to him, but I am still searching.” 

“Please make sure he does not attempt to contact the others. They are out of harm’s way not knowing, and i’d like to keep it that way, and keep me informed of the memory situation if you should progress. Mulan, how is Rose?”

The gray wolf stepped in to answer. “She is well. Still oblivious to her capabilities. She and I are living quietly in the city tending our shop. I stay as close as possible.” 

“We all know.” Alice snipped. 

Mulan growled in response. Every wolf knew she had broken the cardinal rule. She had fallen for her charge. Though this was looked at adversely, the council of wolves could not overstep the bounds of True Love, which is what they had proven to be.

“Alice, enough!!” Granny said with a low growl and a show of teeth. Less from fear, more from the incapability of being disobedient, Alice coward low to the ground at the reprimand of her Alpha. 

Lastly, there was Ruby and her charge Emma. 

“Ruby?”

Ruby was the granddaughter of the Alpha, daughter of Anita, the watcher wolf. Her mother had been shamed in the eyes of the pack years ago. She had abandoned her charge, who in consequence was murdered by the Breathless, some two generations ago. One more immortal Breathless able to walk in the daylight. This left Ruby in the shadow of shame from her mother and the darker shadow of responsibility from her Alpha and Grandmother. 

“Emma, is well. Completely ignorant of her true nature.” She thought maybe she could get away with leaving it at that, now knowing that Regina was not the threat the Alpha was referring to. 

No such luck…

“And about Regina?”

Ruby was largely less fond of Regina than her grandmother was. She honestly couldn’t imagine how a wolf, especially an Alpha wolf could ever befriend a vampire, their sworn enemy. But she also knew her grandmother was committed to keeping every Phoenix safe and seemingly whenever Regina came into play, Emma never remained safe for long. 

“Emma and I are enrolled in Boston University, Regina Mills is our professor.” 

“And you did not become aware of this in time to prevent their meeting?”

The Emma and Regina situation had been entirely unique. They for some unknown reason, had found each other in every single one of Emma’s lifetimes. Like magnets only attracted to one another, they, against all odds came together. They undoubtedly loved one another, but every time Regina showed up in Emma’s life, she ended up dying, leaving Ruby a failure. Out of all the Phoenix, Emma was the oldest line. She had died many, many times but she was the only surviving original Phoenix. All other living Phoenix were offspring of the other long dead originals. She was the only living being left that had been personally gifted with the abilities. Meaning it ran the strongest in her blood as it had not been tainted by the mixture of non Phoenix blood. This made her the greatest prize for the Breathless. 

“I did not. Regina had not shown herself in over a century, why should I think she would just pop up out of nowhere?”

Granny shook her head at the ignorance of her granddaughters words. “Or maybe Emma chose to return now because Regina had surfaced. Such a stupid mistake could cost your charge her life. Have you forgotten the last encounter with Regina Mills? If I recall correctly, whatever remains of your dead and decayed body left would still be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean if it weren't for her.”

A tiny perk of being alpha, having access to all the memories of each pack member from all the time spent in wolf form. 

Ruby hadn't forgotten her last encounter with Regina and she never would...

 

1912  
Southampton Docks  
The docks at Southampton were usually crowded but the morning of April 10th 1912, there was no space unoccupied. Masses of people flooded in from all over the world waiting to glimpse the grand new ship before it would embark on its maiden voyage to America. 

It had rained the night before, evident by the shallow puddles that dotted the docks causing the waiting passengers to carry a little more of England with them then they had intended. The great ship sat on the water with ease, looking like a giant atop the flat ocean sided by the tiny tug boats. It was an amazing sight, and everyone took it in with pride. She was the largest moving vessel built by human hands.   
How fitting it was, the ship of dreams carrying those in pursuit of the American dream.

Three doors on the ship had recently opened and begun allowing passengers aboard after a lengthy check-in. Each door represented a class, 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively, and each one seemed to go for miles. It was in the 3nd class line that Ruby, Emma and her son Henry waited. 

“Gods, if I get shoved one more time i’m gonna lose it!” The brunette about shouted. People nearest to her line gave her looks of irritation, but no one said anything, not that she would have cared if they had. 

“Try to control yourself, Rubes.” Emma laughed and rolled her eyes.

Out of the two, Ruby had alway been the one prone to quick annoyance even quicker to say something about it. Getting herself in trouble was a perfected skill, but thankfully at a very young age she had befriended someone levelheaded enough to get her out of said trouble. They met on the streets that they worked, both trying to get by in slums of WhiteChapel England. 

Years they spent living on scraps, only ever enough to ease the pains of hunger but never enough to fill their stomachs, living in a hovel half a size bigger than the bed the three shared. Surviving on half the income they each brought in, the other half was religiously set aside in a tiny wooden box with the inspiring word, “Hope” carved into the lid. Finally after so much time living on scraps, they had enough to buy their tickets to a new life abroad. 

Back in the line they waited eagerly, ready to board the magnificent ship which was the catalyst of the beginning of their new lives. 

Down at the front of this ship heading the line of first class passengers was one Regina Mills. Like the brunette in the 3rd class line, she too shared in the annoyance of people around her. She had been at the docks for hours standing in the sun waiting to board. Of course she had been immune to the sun’s ray for centuries now, but standing under it for hours still made her uncomfortable. 

Regina had been living in her home country for some time now and was looking forward to going back to her adopted homeland. Here in England she had been part of a rebel coven searching out and destroying all the Breathless or vampires that claimed sovereignty under Fiona their leader. She had followed her from the New world which by now was not so new, to her mother country in hope of destroying the evil woman. But no such luck… Rumor had it she made her way back to America and Regina planned to seek her out and destroy at all cost. 

Finally stepping onto the wooden platform Regina sighed. She took one last glance at the world behind her and stepped over the threshold on to the Titanic. 

 

It was midday when finally, all were boarded and the ship prepared to start its journey. Emma, Ruby and small Henry raced from their staterooms, making their way toward the top decks. Pushing through crowded passageways, smiling excitedly, they made it to the top deck. Obviously, the entire populace of the ship had the same idea, there was absolutely no free space. Ruby grabbed little Henry and lifted him to sit atop her shoulders. 

“Where to, Henry?” 

Unused to the height, little Henry gathered every sight his eyes could take in. Surely almost all the world’s people must be on this boat, he thought. He sat in awe watching every sort of person one could imagine. Some very tall, other very short and some in-between. People who looked that ate vast amounts of food, and people who looked to eat even less than himself. The air was filled with voices of the young and old yelling loudly to other on the ship with them, and to loved one on the docks. Suddenly a great whistle blew, and at once they all knew to send their last goodbyes to the people far below them on solid ground. 

“Henry, do you see a spot? We’ve got to waves her off.” 

Henry scolded himself for getting distracted from his duty. He knew who his aunty had meant when she said “wave her off.” Not that anyone was on the ground waiting, no… She was the land itself, England. 

“There!” He screamed out in excitement. At the very top of a set of stair was an empty space just big enough for the three of them to fit and it would provide a superb view, perfect for waving off their beloved England. What Henry didn’t mention was the tiny chain hanging, meant to deter passengers from entering. The trio briskly walked to the staircase. 

“It’s blocked off, we have to find another spot Henry darling.” 

“Nonsense.” Ruby lifted the chain links, removing the latch giving them access. 

“See, no problem.” The brunette winked at her blonde friend. 

“You are a bad influence.” Emma rolled her eyes with a smile, though she was the one to take the lead up the staircase. At the very top they had a view of almost the entire ship. Smoke from the four stacks filled the air, as another whistle rang out. Thousands upon thousands of people, screaming, yelling, voices mixing, producing all unintelligible, jumbled noise. 

The three began yelling as loud as they possibly could, joining the masses, waving to everyone, but no one. 

As a first class passenger Regina Mills had access to a variety of public entertainment areas. This grand ship was a five star hotel that floated, it provided a exquisite dining saloon, restaurant, and lounge. A large smoking room and veranda cafe. The facilities on this ship far surpassed those of rival ships. 

But through all the happy chaos she elected to remain in her considerably embellished stateroom, where she planned on spending the majority of the voyage. In her long years, this was not the first time she had crossed the Atlantic and when you’ve done it once, you’ve done it a thousand times. 

Even through the thick walls she could hear the mobs on deck above her, yelling their goodbyes to loved ones. Which irritatingly, reminded her of her of her own loneliness. After some time, the noise and excitement died down and she was able to enjoy the rest of the evening in relative peace and quiet, reading a favorite classic by one William Shakespeare. 

The daylight of the eleventh came quickly, bathing the ship in a blissful morning glow. Sunlight blindly bounced off the newly varnished wood of the tops decks. The ship slide through the frigid Atlantic smoothly, causing little disruption to the passengers as they walked the top decks. 

This morning was one of the few that Regina Mills had decided she needed to stretch her legs, convincing herself that she may also enjoy the fresh ocean air. Hidden under a parasol, she paced her steps as she walked the along the gangway, staring straight ahead in a trance, lost in thought. 

While in this trance, a small red ball went unnoticed as it rolled into the bottom of her long dress. Following this red ball, a dirty little boy no older than 6 tripped on his untied shoelace and fell face first into the immaculate dress of the entranced vampire. Trance broken by the crash, Regina looked to access the cause. 

Laying at her feet was the small boy. She heard a quiet sniffle, that turned into a sob. The boy just lay there on his elbows for what seemed to be minutes before making a move to try and stand, while, Regina just stood unmoving. Today there must have been something wrong with her, she was extraordinarily and uncharacteristically unaware of her surroundings. So much so that she did not notice the Blonde running up to her then stopping to collect the pile at the woman’s feet that was her son. 

The shift in the air shocked her before her eyes could. The familiar smell ripped her from whatever had been the distraction and Regina lifted her eyes to person that was a standing just in front of her. 

“I am so, so sorry. My Henry can be very clum-...” Emma stopped mid sentence as she met Regina’s gaze. 

“Emma!” The name came out before she could stop herself. Damn.  
Her heart about leap from her chest at the sight of her. It was Emma, her Emma. 

At the sound of her name, Emma’s brow furrowed in confusion. They stared at one another, Regina pleading with whatever gods that brought them together, for the blond to remember her. Emma curiously searched the face in front of her, something about her eyes seemed so familiar. 

Henry broke the silence between the two. “Mama?” 

Emma snapped back to reality. “I am so sorry Ms.” 

‘Mama?’ Emma, her Emma had a son? ‘Ms?’ The words hit her hard. She was stranger to the woman she loved. Her walls went back up. 

 

The brunette collected herself.   
“Quite alright. Is the boy injured?” 

She watched as the blonde looked the small boy over searching for any wound. Satisfied when she found none, she smiled warmly. 

“Not that I can see.” Emma smiled, a smile Regina was intimately familiar with. A smile she had been longing to see for years. 

Regina knew if or when she saw her Emma again, she would not remember her. That is how it had always been upon meeting in a new lifetime. But for some reason, she always hoped against hope that it would all just flood back into her lover upon sight. Always setting herself up for disappointment. But none of it mattered, Emma had found her once again.

“Pardon me Mistress have we met before? You have me at an advantage, you know my name but I do not know yours. You seem familiar , but I cannot place how.” 

Regina cursed herself, she was hoping she hadn’t caught that she had used her name. 

‘What am I gonna say? Explanation!! Now Regina! Yes, we have. You are the love of my long, long, life and I have followed you throughout history.’ Or… ‘Yes, you just don’t remember because you died in my arms years ago and were reborn for the hundredth time.’ No, lying would be best for now. Yea, lie .’ 

She smiled nervously. “You do look familiar, I must have overheard someone using your name then caught a glimpse of your face somehow and it stuck.” Smooth Regina. That was ridiculous, how could anyone in their right mind believe that. 

“Yes that must be it, yesterday was quite the circus.” Emma agreed, though Regina knew she was still a bit doubtful. 

“It was.” Regina nodded.   
Change the subject! 

“Well, regardless if we have or have not met before, we have now. I am Regina Mills.” 

Emma smiled. “Emma Swan, nice to meet you. This little lad here, is my son Henry.” 

Regina stuck out her gloved hand toward the still sniveling boy. “What a pleasure it is to meet you, young sir.”   
Henry smiled and reached his little hand up to meet Regina’s. Emma smiled at the interaction, Henry didn’t often take so quickly to strangers. 

“Well, Ms. Swan. I was just about to continue my walk down the gangway here, would you and Henry like to accompany me? I would be thankful for the company.”

“Well since my son so rudely disturbed you earlier, I guess that is the least we can do to make for it.”Emma chuckled sarcastically, tickling the boy in her arms. The vampire smiled. The boy was cute, and he favored his mother. She had never thought of her Emma as a mother, but it obviously suited her. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking and conversing while Henry ran ahead chasing his red ball. Regina was in utter bliss. Briefly, she was able to forget reality and sink solely into the time spent with the little family. 

Unbeknown to the women they were being watched, intently from afar. 

 

“I had a really wonderful afternoon with you and young Henry. Thank you for joining me Ms. Swan.” 

“We very much enjoyed our walk as well, didn’t we Henry?” Emma poked at her son’s tummy as she held him on her hip. He giggled. “Yes mama.” 

Regina smiled at the little family before her. During their walk Emma had told little of Henry’s origins, and the life the lifestyle they came from. Regina cringed at the horror the little family had gone through just to get where they were now.

“Ms. Swan, I was planning on having dinner in my quarters tonight, the dining rooms are always so crowded and filled with smoke and useless gossip. I was wondering if you would consider joining me? The food will be wonderful and you could have as much as you desire.” She gave a quick wink in Henry’s direction. 

Emma stood still for a moment considering. This made Regina worry, maybe she had gone too far, too fast. After all they had only just met… 

Henry apparently grew tired of wait for his mother to respond and decided that she may require his assistance. Very politely he spoke up in the silence. 

“Mmm-my mama and me would very happy to join you for sup-pper.” He said with a wide grin, knowing he was making his mama proud by using his manners. 

Regina smiled, then looked to the still silent mother, hoping she would agree. 

“Of course we will join you for dinner. I was only worried about getting to your staterooms, isn’t it a bit unusual for steerage passengers to come to the upper decks?” 

Regina grinned and looked around. “Well , you don’t seem to have any trouble getting around.” She had earlier, briefly wondered how the boy and his mother had gotten to top decks. As they were restricted to anyone below 1st class. 

Emma laughed haphazardly. “Yes well… It’s much less crowded up here and I was afraid Henry might disappear in the mob that is the lower deck.” 

“No need to explain or defend dear. I am very happy to have met you and that wouldn’t have happened if you had stayed down there.” 

Emma smiled. Normally she would never consider having dinner with someone she had literally just met, especially with Henry. But there was something about this woman. Her voice resonated deep within her, almost as if the very sound had woken something powerful inside her. She needed more, so she and her son would join her for dinner. 

“Anyway, about dinner. What time should we join you?” 

“How about 5:30pm? Then we can plenty of time after for activities.” 

“That sounds wonderful. Where should we…”

“I will come meet you here if you’d like? Then there will be no issue in getting you to my quarters.” 

Emma nodded, Henry smiled, with a giggle. 

They said their goodbyes, with smiles looking forward to the next meeting. 

Regina remained, as she watched the woman she loved walk until she and the boy were out of sight. She wondered how many times she would have to suffer this woman leaving her in some form or another. 

The sun was just beginning to sink behind the ocean as Regina stood at the very spot she had been in hours before saying goodbye to her love and the boy. All afternoon she had been looking forward to their dinner and had been preparing a wonderful evening. She had pre ordered food items from the menu that she knew Emma would like, along with things she thought young boys would like, with some advice from the waiter on that part. She had made sure to feed herself well before the evening started, so as to avoid any unwanted behavior. She did trust herself with Emma, but the boy was new to her and she needed to eliminate all possibility of a mishap. 

She also had some trouble deciding what exactly to wear. She didn’t want to put on something too elegant, as she did not want to insult Emma by flaunting her wealth. But she couldn’t wear something too casual either, she didn’t want to convey that, Emma was so unimportant that she felt she didn’t need to look presentable. Finally she settled on simple, red T-shaped dress with an exquisite, yet delicate silver necklace, paired with matching earrings. 

Leaning on the railing, staring at the expanse before her,she waited for her, unaware, past life lover and her son. The ship cruised along, there was a slight breeze that after sometime waiting, had brought along a very unpleasant scent. One of wild, familiarity, and one she had been expecting. 

“I was wondering when you would come out of the shadows. Usually, you don’t keep me waiting so long. Are you losing your nerve, wolf?” 

Ruby stepped up behind the vampire. “What are you doing here Regina?” 

“Since when have I needed to explain myself to you, mongrel?”

“How dare you even go near her after what happened!

Regina spun around before Ruby could get out another accusation. “How dare I? You are as much to blame for what happened as I. You are suppose to protect her, are you not? Isn’t that your job, the very reason for your existence?” 

This was true and Ruby knew it. No matter how much she wanted to place all the blame with the vampire, she too was at fault. Though of course she would never admit it. At least not to Regina.

“Why can’t you leave well enough alone? She had Henry, she has me… Why can’t you let her live in peace?”

“The boy’s father?” 

“Dead.” Ruby answered with a hiss. 

“In spite of what you may think wolf, I do not go about seeking her out. It is she, that finds me. Somehow... “ The last work was spoken as a light whisper. 

To Ruby, this of course could not be true. How could someone with no memory of her past lives, somehow be seeking out a past lover? 

“You are a monster Regina. Will you stop at nothing? How much pain and suffering can you watch her endure? Every time you come into her life she suffers. You cannot deny it.” Smoldering anger had risen to the surface, threatening to boil over. Ruby’s eyes had changed from a very normal, human brown to an unnatural beast like, burning yellow. 

“I will not let you interfere this time Regina, she will live to fulfill whatever fate has foretold.” 

“And what exactly are you planning on doing mutt? Starting an all out battle here, on the deck of a ship in the middle on the ocean?” The vampire cackled. 

The wolf raged. Regina willingly pushed. “Emma and I were together many years before you showed up pup. You being assigned to her holds no power over me.” 

“It may not, but my purpose is to protect her from the exact monster that is you.” 

Another laugh. “Yes. Because you have been doing such a glorious job so far... As long as Emma wants me in her life, I will be there. If she decides otherwise, I will disappear.” 

“You just need to sta-”

“Ruby! What are you doing up here? I see you’ve met our new friend, Ms. Mills.” Emma unknowingly interrupted. She and little Henry walked up behind still very visibly angry wolf who was trying desperately to calm the beast that she has almost set free. 

Ruby’s face finally softened at the sight of her best friend/charge. “Yes. I saw you both speaking earlier and thought i’d introduce myself.” 

“Hi Ms. Mills, I trust you enjoyed your afternoon.” Emma greeted. 

“Hello, Gina!” Henry blurted out. 

Emma instantly looked down at her son in shock. 

“Henry, you apologize to Ms. Mills this instant. She had not given you permission to refer to her as anything but Ms. Mills. We always need to mind our?”

“Our manners.” He responded to his mother obediently. “Please a forgive me Ms. Mills.” 

Regina bent down to Henry’s level. “Not at all young sir. You are perfectly welcome to call me Gina if you would like.” Regina didn’t particularly like the epithet but, it was easier for the boy to say and she had noticed a slight smile from Emma before she had reprimanded him out of respect for the elder woman. 

Regina stood back up eyes on Emma, completely ignoring the presence of the wolf.   
“I did have enjoyable afternoon, thank you. How was yours and Henry’s?” 

Before Emma could answer, Ruby cut into the conversation. “Em, let’s go to the general room and play some cards.” Ruby took a hold of Emma’s arm attempting to pull her away. Emma budged only slightly. 

“Rubes, we were invited to have dinner with Ms.Mills.” Emma glanced at Regina sheepishly. “Would you mind terribly if Ruby joined us?”

This momentarily stunned Regina. The request had the potential to ruin all her evening plans, but how could she refuse? Thankfully before the panic started to show, the wolf saved her. Knowing she was defeated for the moment, Ruby stepped down. 

“I’ve suddenly started feeling quite ill. Something in the air, possibly.” She gave Regina a deep scowl. 

“I think i’ll go lay down.” 

Regina notice the minor look of disappointment on Emma’s face, she decided to throw out an olive branch. “Yes, please Ms. Ruby join us.” She requested, trying to sound as sincere as possible.

Ruby stared at her as if trying to ascertain her motives. “Thank you, but I must decline. As I said, am feeling unwell.” The wolf turned to leave without another word. 

Sometime later they three were happily sitting in Regina’s staterooms at a large dinner table. Henry had already gone through is first serving of chicken and mashed potatoes and was eyes the American Ice cream. 

“So Ms. Mills are you from England originally?” Emma asked as she place her napkin back in her lap. 

Regina smiled at the question. Technically she was born in England but she had been in America since it’s birth, so in essence she was one of the very first American. As was Emma. 

“Yes, I was born in London. However i’ve spent most of my life in America so I consider it my homeland.” 

“I see… In New york?”

Emma had always been a curious person, another attribute that carried over. There were subtle difference though, as well. Regina notice that the blond didn’t touch the spiced beef which she had always like in the past. She also didn’t fidget as she usually did, though she did play with her hair during idle conversation. Which Regina had never seen her do. 

“Ah, no. I spent most of my time in North Carolina. Though now I have homes in Boston and New York and I go between the two.” She smiled and silently cursed herself. She hadn’t meant to mention her status. 

“What about yourself? You’ve told me some of your history but you haven’t told me much about your plans for the future.” Safely switching gears. 

Emma took another quick bit of her fish before answering. 

“Well, Ruby and I are hoping to get work in a manufacturing factory. Just something so we can live comfortably and get this one into school.” She nodded towards the still eating boy. 

“It’s just Ms. Ruby and yourself? No family or anyone waiting on you?” She was prying as much as she could without drawing attention that she was doing so. 

“It’s just us three. Thank gods for Ruby. She has been there looking out for Henry and I for as long as I can remember.” 

Regina rolled her eyes, of course she had. 

“What about you Ms. Mills? You are traveling alone so you must have someone waiting at home for you.” 

Regina’s heart broke. How ironic, her unknowing mate was asking her if she had a suitor at home waiting. 

“I did have someone.” A small frown crept over her lips. “But that person seems to be long gone.” 

Suddenly Emma, felt terrible for asking. She hadn’t even considered it a possibility that such a woman as Regina would be single. She had imagined some sort of fairytale lover waiting for her return. 

“I see, I have troubled you. I shouldn’t have pried.” Emma said upset by the sting she had caused. 

“No, please, it’s alright. I don’t mind speaking of it. It brings back memories of better days.” 

“Mama, can I please have some ice cream!” Henry asked excitedly, breaking the silence that had fallen between the two women. Emma looked to Regina. 

“Well of course you can young sir. But first I was thinking maybe if it’s alright with your mum, that you could have a lovely bath.” 

Henry’s face went from happy to pure rapture.“A bath! A real bath?” 

Regina nodded. She had known that baths were a luxury for the wealthy and that any young boy would enjoy sitting in a tub of water with bubbles. 

Henry looked to his mother, pleading with his eyes for her to grant permission. She smiled at his excitement, how could she refuse. 

“You had better thank Ms. Mills.”   
This made him burst, he lept from his chair into his mama’s lap and kissed on the cheek thankfully. 

“You finish eating, I’ll get the bath water ready for young master Henry.” Regina said as she rose from her chair. The Titanic was the first ship to have running water and she was glad that someone other than herself would enjoy it.

After a few minutes, Regina returned to the dining area. Henry was still seated in his mother’s lap playing with a necklace Emma was wearing. “Everything is ready for you, young man.” 

The boy cheerfully looked to his mother, wordless asking permission. She nodded, he bounced from her lap to the floor and ran into the room with the large marble tub. Both women smiled hearing the boy excitedly yell out “Bubbles!” 

“Thank you so much. I don’t think he has ever had a warm bath that wasn’t in a tin barrel.” Emma giggled. 

“It’s my pleasure. Of course it is open to you as well, if you’d like.” 

Emma smiled and got up from her chair. Regina busied herself tidying the dinner table, pretending not to watch the blond who was exploring the room around her. 

Emma walked to the mantel on the wall, admiring the skillfully carved oak. She thought back through her life, wondering if she had ever been in a room as luxurious as this. Conclusion, she hadn’t.   
Her eyes scanned the room, falling on opulent furnishings such as; a large Mahogany wardrobe, a bookshelf stocked with reading material. Light fixtures hung dimly lighting, perfectly complementing the wooden walls giving off a warm atmosphere. A comfortable looking sofa and a side table sat at the other end of the room, opposite the front door. In a small room across from the privy was a neatly made canopy bed. Emma was sure the Queen of England herself would be comfortable in the room. 

She absentmindedly walk over to the bookshelf, scanning all the titles. Thought she couldn’t read the them, one in particular caught her eye. She pulled the shabby book from its place, it was old and had obviously been handled a great deal. The corners were wilted, pressed in towards the pages. Tiny threads hung loose from the binding. She ran her fingers along the edges then lightly traced the golden lettering in the title. Someone must have spent hours enjoying the story it told, maybe it was even very dear to that someone. 

“That one, is my very favorite.” said a voice, just above a whisper. Regina knew it was common for the underprivileged to be illiterate, she guessed that Emma wouldn’t know the story. At least not from this lifetime. 

Emma jumped, startled by the proximity of the brunette as she found her standing mere inches behind her. As if acting in response to the soft voice, Emma noticed her heart started to flutter and her knees begin to tremble. All the moisture in her mouth had fled, leaving her momentarily speechless. 

She swallowed.   
“Oh, what is it?” 

Regina listened to the racing heart, delighted that she still had this effect on the blond. She took it as a good sign, maybe she could get her Emma back again. 

“It’s a tragic, love story. It chapters, events of a pair that would give up everything just to be together.”

“A tragic love story? Don’t all good love stories have happy endings?” Emma asking looking genuinely curious. 

“I guess, it would depend on what you consider to be a happy ending.” 

“I should think, at the end, the lovers should be unhindered by the world and be able to live in each other’s love. An end to the story but a beginning to their tale, in essence.” 

“Very nicely put.” The vampire whispered. Weakening by the second, as she listened to every breath the other woman drew in, alongside her galloping heartbeat. All the while having to consciously keep herself from reaching out to touch the visible pale skin before her. Skin that she had caressed so numerous times before, skin that could give warmth to the long cold and dead. 

A rebellious hand began moving up, slowly reaching for the skin that was deafeningly calling out to her. 

“Mama! The bubbles are almost gone!” Emma’s body stiffened, her son had called her back from the reverie she’d been lost in. 

“Alright kid, i'm coming.” Emma turned to look at her host, who had taken a passive step back. 

“I would love to hear more about the story.” She said as she handed it to the dizzy vampire. She then turned to walk toward the room Henry was splashing around in. 

Regina smiled. She flipped through the book, to the very last page. Elegantly penned in the top right corner was the name, Emma Swan. Out of all the book on the shelf, she had picked her own. One that she had spent countless hours reading and rereading. 

With a audible sigh, she stepped away from the shelf. She placed the old book the table beside the sofa on her way to check on her guests. 

By the time Emma was finally able to pull the reluctant Henry from the tub, the water was already chilled. Regina watched as the blond toweled the giggly boy dry and dressed him. Once fully dressed, little Henry ran over to the vampire and unexpectedly took ahold of her hand. She fought the instinct to pull away. 

“Time for ice cream Gina?”

She smiled and nodded, glad that he didn’t comment on the temperature of her hands. Then…

“Gina, why are your hands so, so cold?” 

She panicked slightly.

Thankfully he invented his own explanation. 

“Gina have you started eating the ice cream without me? Mama says you shouldn’t eat with your hands.” He stated very seriously, shaking his head. 

Glad of the offered excuse, she grin. “My apologies young master. It is very true, one should never eat with one’s hands. Shame on me, it’s just that vanilla ice cream is my most favorite thing in the whole world.” She finished with a wink. 

Emma rolled her eyes at the silliness. Normally, Henry was so shy, but the way he had taken to Regina so quickly, was shocking. 

 

Sometime later, after ice cream had been eaten, the three were comfortably sitting on the sofa. Henry was sitting quietly, completely engrossed in his bowl ice cream. His mother and friend continuing in small conversation, as the blond nonchalantly noticed the book on the side table. Regina noticed what had caught her eye, and could see her curiosity beckoning. She picked it up, feeling the familiar coarseness, as she ran her fingers over the hardcover. 

“You’ve read it often?” Emma asked. 

“Many, many times.” Regina answered, guessing that Emma could see the book obviously meant something to her by the emotions that must have taken over her features. . She was not entirely surprised that Emma was showing such interest in the book. It had alway been the one thing that connected them throughout time. 

“Where did you get it?” 

Without taking her eyes off the volume in her hands, she answered. “It once belonged to someone very dear to me and came into my possession after their passing.”

“I see, I am very sorry.” 

“It’s a lovely story. Would you and Henry like to hear some?” 

Emma smiled. She knew Henry would like hearing a story, even if he couldn’t understand it entirely, and she was sure, she would enjoy it much. 

“Yes, please.”   
Regina nodded and open the book to the very first page and began to read aloud. 

“Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whole misadventured piteous overthrows. Do with their bury their parents strife.” 

While Regina read, Henry had finished his dessert and comfortably settled, leaning into her lap. Emma had drifted into a glaze, transfixed by words she somehow knew, read by the impossibly, but deeply familiar. The voice tugged at something unknown, that existed in a place between her memory and imagination.

“I pray thee, chide me not. Her I love now, doth…” Regina read on, only stopping when Emma cut in. 

“Doth grace for grace and love for love allow.” Emma finished. The words flowing as if she knew them all by heart. While Emma sat in awe, Regina realized she had just caught a tiny glimpse of her lover. 

Her body and mind reacted to Shakespeare’s passage as if the words themselves had be prearranged to trigger the release of all the memories locked away. 

The look of initial shock and confusion fled Emma’s face and was replaced by a look devoid of any emotion as she stared into the distance. In the stateroom, with the two women and the young boy, the concept of time did not exist. Whether two hours or two minutes had passed, they would not recall. Regina with the boy asleep in her lap, watched as her lover was reborn. The myriad memories flooded from an opened door back into her consciousness causing a single tear slide down her pale cheek. 

After some time, color began to return to the blond, her eyes returned to their normal size but there was a hinted difference and Regina saw it instantly. With not one word being spoken, the vampire watched, as the blond reached to remove the novel form her hands. She examined it carefully, handling it as the treasured object that it is. Gently tracing her fingers along the edges, she opened the book and flipped through the pages until she reached the very last. A half smile spread across her lips, as her fingertips etched fondly over her written name.

Without looking up she spoke. “You still have it.” 

Eyes never leaving the blond, Regina shook her head and answered. “I would never part with it.”

Reddened and tear damp, Emma’s eyes lifted and fell to the woman sitting with her son. 

“Regina,” Emma says the name effortlessly falling from her lips. 

No sooner had it been spoken, Regina was gently placing the boys head on a pillow, and knelt in front of her Emma. Taking the blonde’s face in her hands, as she had dreamt all day, Regina wiping away the free falling tears. The familiarity of Regina’s cold caress flooding Emma with a current of energy. She was still the woman Emma knew, after all these years. 

Unable to wait another moment, Regina stood and pulled the blond into tight embrace.  
Was this real? Was her love, her Emma here, in her arms?

She fell into the moment, listening to her breathing, her heart beating, and the slight sniffles from happy tears. Emma loosened herself from Regina arms and took a small step back, to look into her eyes.

“What took you so long?” Emma asked, ruefully smiling. 

Regina smiled at this. “My darling, I have learned to not to go searching for you, that you will always find me. And I will wait, no matter how long it takes.” 

The hour was spent getting reacquainted, detailing each other on their new lives. They did not speak of the past life and the tragedy of Emma’s sudden demise, they never did. The life, their love was renewed and the possibilities seemed endless. 

“You stayed in England.” Emma stated. “I thought you didn’t like it.”

“I don’t. But I had good reason to stay.” 

“You mean you were searching for them? For her…” 

“Yes.” 

“You found nothing?” 

“Nothing. They seemed to have vanished after you, you… The killings stopped in September 1888 then they disappeared. No more mutilated bodies, no more bodies at all.I stayed waiting for them to resurface, and in hopes you would return to me. But then not a month ago I got word that they might be back in America, so I left.” 

 

“Regina you can’t just spend your life waiting. You wait them, you wait for me. You just wait.” 

The vampire shook her head, the comment had caught her off guard. 

“Emma, you don’t know of what you speak. I wait only for you… The rest, is the attempt to fill my endless hours.” 

“ You needn’t suffer so Regina. Waiting on bated breath as the years pass, is not the way to live a life, even an endless one.” 

Offended by the words her lover spoke, Regina rose from her seat position, emotions flaring. Her voice deep, laced with anger and sadness. 

“Emma, you have no idea what it’s like to see the person you love more than your own life, more than any life in all the universe die. Time after time, not being about to stop the seemly inevitable. It’s like death itself is your true love and I am not, for it always wants you and has had you for many more years than I.”

“Regina, you know there is a remedy for death and it is in your power to give it.” 

Of course Regina knew there was a way she could save her lover, she had considered granting the request every time the blonde had asked. But every time she had gotten close to a decision, she thought of Emma’s beating heart, of the warmth in her skin, and breaths she took in after a long desirous kiss. She thought of the painful transition, and how her own body had felt like it was being entirely consumed by a searing fire. The pain and guilt of having to kill to survive. Her heart being darkened by the forced need to slaughter. No, as before, now she could not condemn her lover to this fate.

“You know I cannot do what you ask.” Regina responded solemnly. 

Emma turned away, her frustration evident. 

“Emma, life. Your life is precious, please don't ask me to take it . You have Henry now, He needs his mother, his human mother.”

“Regina…” Emma shook her head, knowing she would not win this battle. 

The brunette moved to the blonde's side in an instant, she took the other womans face in her cold hands and pulled until their lips met. They both melted into each other’s touch, the lips entangling themselves as each woman fought for dominance. Needing air, Emma unhappily broke contact, gasping. 

Seizing the moment, Regina stood and lifted the blond in her arms, glanced at Henry momentarily then made her wait to the bedroom. She set the blonde on her feet near the side of the bed. Emma took a breath in, her thoughts clouded, but focused solely on the brunette standing inches before her. She slowly reached up to Regina’s chest, tracing the slightly visible collarbone, her fingers making way to the hem of her dress loosely set on her shoulders. 

Between them an atmospheric, flawless desire. Emma leaned forward to kiss her, unlike the last, this one was laced with emotion. Deeply passionate and lustful, infused with anger but at the same time, extreme bliss. Regina pulled at the laces locking away a the body she needed to touch. Once free, she pushed down the fabric that encased the body and reached out to cup the released breasts. Emma remembered the firmness of her embrace, and yet there was a newness to their union. Their bodies remembered and yet they did not.   
“There was not a day, that I did not think you.” Regina huffed out, as she took Emma into her arms and gently laid her on the bed behind them.  
“Change me, and I won’t have to ever leave again.”   
Growling into Emma’s shoulder, always did funny things to the blonde’s insides. The scent of arousal filled Regina’s senses to the point of overflowing deliciously with unsated hunger. Taking Emma’s hands and holding them above her head with one hand. “We are together right now, and I’m not gonna waste a moment of it.”   
Even in the dim lighting, Regina is mesmerised by her lover. Something Emma never failed to do in any lifetime. Stealing the breath, the brunette did not need to take. Her thunderous heartbeat, pumping life through Emma’s veins. Pale cheeks, flush with color. Pupils blown wide with desire and the rest of her, pale as her undead counterpart.  
Regina wondered what Emma was feeling, as she drew her lips up her neck slow and deliberately.   
“Change me.” Emma ordered, as she always did with each encounter after a reunion. Drawing her own teeth over Regina’s jugular. A move that never failed to draw out her lovers fangs, as she descended none too gently. Regina had spent many years awaiting this night, as she left her tender trail of destruction. Biting Emma only as the blonde bucked towards her when Regina’s lips kissed her inner thigh, in warning. “Do it.”   
“As you wish,” Regina uttered, doing neither as Emma requested nor what the blonde likely expected. Her biting was not enough to pierce the skin, only in warning.   
Everything within the brunette is screaming out to her mate. Nothing filling her senses but Emma. The scent of her clinging to every surface, clasping tightly to Regina reeling her in. Emma’s unadulterated arousal begging to be consumed. Emma waiting to be claimed, as Regina sucked deeply at the pulse point at the junction of her hip and thigh. Without a doubt, Regina’s favorite, and it never failed to draw out a cherished whimper.   
Her breasts are fuller than Regina remembered, no doubt a result of her pregnancy. Flicking her tongue through Emma’s arousal, taking in the heady concoction. Reveling in it, as the teasing of her sex begins. Regina can hear the way Emma swallows thickly, her heartbeat as deafening as when their lips reunited. She absorbed indulgently in Emma’s taste, the desire as strong as it had ever been.   
“Make me yours forever.” Emma Begged.   
The words ignite Regina’s core into a fiery passion, as she devours the blonde. She knew exactly what she’s doing when she wraps cool lips, warmed by a beautiful set of thighs, wrap around Emma’s clit and she enters her with fingers. Regina loves the way Emma’s body tenses and rises from the bed in an unexpected overabundance of pleasure.   
“Was that too much?”   
Emma was trembling in under her touch, but her hand threading through dark hair told Regina all was well. Flipping them, Emma arched a brow at her mate and grinned, running a lean thigh through the silky, slickness pooling at Regina’s core.  
“We’re only just beginning.”   
It was not in Regina’s nature to beg, but for her, she would come undone time and again. Every kiss, each caress, owning her. Bringing her untold pleasures and desires rising to the surface. Pain, pleasure, warmth, and love welling inside the many-times over hollow vampire. This night Emma was here.   
Regina was whole again.

Hours later, the women lay in the bed utterly, splendidly, exhausted.  
“Regina?” Emma said, nonchalantly playing her fingers across her lover’s collarbone.  
“Hm?”   
“If anything ever happens to me, I want you to take Henry.” More of an order than a request, she knew Regina could not deny her. She was the only one in the universe that could give an order to the vampire and she knew it.   
“Nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t let it.” Dark eyes reflected the fire just over Emma’s shoulder, betraying nothing.  
“He loves ice cream, I’ve only been able to get it for him once or twice. Also, he loves puppet shows. He gets cranky when he needs a nap but, he is a good little lad.”   
Cold fingers grasped Emma’s chin, pressing a kiss to heated lips, tasting the saltiness of tears as Emma’s heart spilled down her face. “Henry will be safe.” Jade eyes opened as they separated and a sly smile formed on her lips.   
Emma whispers, barely brushing their lips “You will be happy to know he gets his name from your father.”  
The vampire smiled.   
“May I ask you something?”  
Emma nodded.   
“Did you love him? Henry’s father?” Regina asked, brushing blonde hair from in front of Emma’s eyes to over her shoulder.   
“Yes,” Emma admitted. “The Emma that I was in this lifetime did.”   
“Did he love you?”   
“Yes.”  
“May I ask how he died?”  
Emma’s face darkened, she hadn’t thought about the disaster in years let alone retelling the tale.   
Regina noted the sudden shift. “Forget I asked.”  
“Two years ago, Neal took a mining post in Whitehaven Cumbria. He left on promises of returning with enough money to take us away from Whitechapel, to the America’s.”  
Regina hearing the location, instantly knew of what she spoke. The disaster of 1910, Cumbria’s worst mining calamity.   
“There was an explosion.” Emma teared and for a fleeting moment lost her composure. She quickly regained fortitude, she would not disgrace the father of her son’s memory with the inability to telling of his noble sacrifice.   
“For some fluke of a reason Neal was not in the shaft at the time of the explosion, but he immediately volunteered to head the rescue brigade. For days he, they, fought through and against the smoke and the heat of the aftermath. Tunneling through the rubble, scouring every crevice for survivors. At last they reached a small shaft with survivors, only by hearing the pounding and screaming of the buried men. Neal was the first to make the opening to free the weak but rapturous group of men and young boys. After he had pulled three survivors through, he was told of a severely injured man, unable to walk that remained in the shaft. The creaky beams holding the earth at bay above them had begun to give way, the men were given orders to retreat, but Neal would not.” Emma took in a breath.   
“He refused to leave a man still living, behind, so he entered the opening. Dust and pebbles fell from the shifting rocky, earth canopy above, the men dare not make a sound for fear of fracture. All left but two, Neal pulling the injured man toward safety, the other waiting at the opening to assist. He was able to get the man out before it all finally collapsed in on him.” The blond huffed, glad to be finished.  
“He died an unremembered and unrecognized hero.” She finished.   
Regina took her lover in her arms and held tight. She knew very well the pain of losing a loved one and she felt for the woman. “ You remember him, Henry remembers him, the man he saved remembers him. To those that matter most, he is remembered.” She tried to give some relief to the still fresh wounds.   
Emma sat up and wiped the stray tear that had escaped. “My sons father died a hero and as my son grows he will hear of what he did. But now, now you are my future. Our future…” The blond leaned into gently kiss the vampire.   
Sitting up to meet the blond. “Yes, how is the young master? I haven’t heard a peep from him.”  
“He sleeps like the dead.”   
“I will be the judge of that,” Regina says curtly to Emma’s smile. 

Morning had come too soon for the reunited women, back to reality. They kissed and separated for a short term goodbye. Emma and Henry off to their staterooms to find Ruby. Emma had news, and she had missed her wolf.   
“Where the hell have you been!” The obviously angry brunette scolded as Emma and Henry entered their stateroom door. Emma smiled, of course she had expected this greeting, so she stopped in her place and said one word with an all knowing smile.   
“Ruby.”   
After knowing the same person century upon century, you truly get to know their language. Not a spoken language, but one of motion and their aura it self. Also, the undetectable to all but her and her kind, very familiar stench of vampire, gave the blond away.   
The wolf shrugged with a heavy heart. She was happy that her true friend had returned but all the came with her return terrified her.   
“You remember.”   
Emma nodded.   
Ruby steadily walked up and embraced her friend, and held her tight. Guardian and guarded reunited after long last.   
“What will you do now?”   
“What we will do now is move forward like we had planned, with one addition, Regina. She has offered us all we could ever want. Even work if we so choose, and schooling for Henry. Such wonderful opportunities are before Ruby.   
“Since when have wonderful opportunities ever come from being involved with Regina Mills?”   
“Ruby, that isn’t fair and you know it. She had just as little chance of saving me as you, you need to see that. You are blinded by the deep, inbred hatred for her kind. I understand, but she is different and again, you know this is true. Please, for me, try.” Emma begged.   
Once again the wolf felt defeated. It was her job, above all else to protect the girl, at any cost. But at every turn, she felt thwarted by the villainous vampire that was her charges lover. But deep in her soul, she knew there was something inexplicable about their relationship. Now that Emma remembered, there was no keeping them apart.  
In a moment of absolute clarity, she came to the stone solid conclusion, that she would die before she would watch her charge, her friend die again.   
The next days passed in fondness, the little family with it’s new addition reveled in each other’s company, even Ruby played nice.   
It was in the darkness of a starry, cold night that an unforeseen disaster struck. The thought unsinkable ship, was sinking. The icy waters of the Atlantic were rising over the edges of the grand ship, spilling onto the varnished decks. People crowded into screaming, erratic mobs, turning the gangway into a flooded and clogged freeway.   
Earlier, Emma and Henry had said goodnights, in the established nightly routine before rejoining the steerage in 3rd class near the very bottom of the ship. The steerage rooms were also situated nearest to the vaults for the coal stocks, which were on fire.   
Panic filled the vampire, after the first hour after the collision, she had already incapacitated two crew members for getting in the way of her search. She had checked their staterooms first of course, finding it empty she went back to her own room all the while fighting the aggressive current of people working against her. It too was empty. They must have gotten lost in between. She now stood top deck, after searching it’s length, screaming while knowing it would make no difference. With all her strength, speed and heightened senses, even her magic, she was left helpless in the middle of the ocean, aboard a sinking ship.   
Out of the masses, the words “Women and children only!” filled her ears, a sliver of hope slipped into her mind. Maybe they had gotten on a boat and were at this moment were being lowered to safety. The tiny sliver of optimism fled as fast as it had come at a single sight. Out of the horde, she saw a lone small boy trying his very best to push his way through the towering adults flooding in the opposite direction. She rushed to him and gather him protectively in her arms while scanning for his mother, nothing. The boy was sopping wet, cold and sobbing uncontrollably.   
He clung in a death like grip to her neck , unwilling to part for her. Under all screams of frightened passengers she whispered in the boy’s ear. “Baby, where is your mama?” He said nothing, only shook his head into her tear dampened shoulder.   
Their surroundings were becoming more unreliable and tricky by the second. The vampire knew full well that the majority of the people on this ship would be thrown into the frigid waters below, then dying in the short hours after. Young Henry would not be among them, but she had to find Emma. She could not be lost again… The decision before her broke her unbeating heart. Relinquish Henry into the care of another for safe keeping to search for Emma or fulfill her promise to very woman by taking her son to safety herself.   
A thunderous crack boomed behind her, she turned in time to see that smokestack that had once stood sixty two feet tall, crash, breaking through the captain’s bridge. She had to act, time was short and soon she would have no choices. She scanned her surrounding for any reprieve, which she found with a chubby old woman sitting in a lifeboat that was moments from being lowered to the ocean surface. She gathered all her speed and was at the boat’s side in less than a second.   
“Mrs. Fitzgibbons! Please, take the boy. I need to find his mother, I’ll come for him, I swear it.” She didn’t wait for a response, she all but flew away after prying the boy from her and placing him in the arms of the priorly met, trusted woman.   
She raced the deck, charging her way through terrified people, through the deep water that had taken over she felt the entire ship shutter. She watched as the wood beneath her began to crack and splinter, the ship was tearing from the weight of the water bearing down on one end. The back end started slowing rising up out of the ocean in contrast to the front end which was sinking further into the depths. She had run out of time, soon there would be no ship to stand on…  
As the ship still rose, impossible she caught sight of the blasted wolf, realizing a moment after recognition that she carried a limp body in her arms. The wolf wrapped her arm around the nearest railing go keep from sliding while still holding the body, she let out a terrible deafening howl.Terror filled Regina, she knew, she felt it, she had lost her again and it was the damned wolves fault.   
She dashed half slid down to the mourning wolf and stole the body from her arms, pushing her into the cold waters. She searched the woman frantically for any sign of life, nothing. Her beautiful skin normally a warm pink, now a pale shade of blue, the lips she had kissed hours earlier, a paler still, version. A grieving shriek left her lungs just before she was forcibly thrown across the up and coming vertical decks. Aghast and appalled, she quickly righted herself and searched out what had pitched her.   
There, in the spot she had just been, standing tall, albeit wet, was a menacing black wolf. Teeth bared, eyes flaring, a threatening yellow glow. Regina stared, her fangs naturally exposed, nails sharpened bars, but she had control of herself. She was unsure of the wolf. How much of the human remained in command of beast. She glimpsed the body of her lover, which was threatening to slide into the abyss at any moment. As much as she wanted to rip the head off the miserable beast, she had to try and reason with it, whatever part was in control.   
“Wolf! Look around you.” She sneered.   
This didn’t seem to phase the beast at all. She stood looking to be ready to pounce at any second, though the very surface beneath them was sloping. Regina wanted the body, she would not let it slip away into the darkness. She surged forward and with a happy growl the wolf did the same. Smartly as the wolf had taken to the air expecting a grand collision, Regina slid underneath the beast, making no contact and reaching Emma just before she dropped into the mess of mangled metal and ocean waters.   
Clutching to the body with a great ferocity, the vampire held tight the quickly loosening rail on the side of the ship as it rose, she searched for some sort of savior. Any sort of grace that would allow their escape. She saw hundreds of people clinging to the anything bolted to the surface, frantically trying to preserve or prolong their surely last moments. Screaming, praying and even music had filled the air, but her mind only now noticed that she had somehow earlier noted its existence to only now notice its absence.   
Now almost its full height vertically, she was quickly losing hope. Not necessarily for herself, she could not die again, at most she would get wet but all the life before was doomed, just like the one in her arms had been. The scenes playing out before her too, hard even for her aged mind to comprehend. She watched as a young man fell from his perch into the dark waters below, and over again she witnessed the fearful look of dread on the face of a man as his lover’s hand slipped from his grasp and she fell into the void. Briefly she wondered if this was all preordained, if Emma had been and always will be preordained to die over and over again without ever, actually living.   
She was struck back into her reality, as she caught sight of the wolf hovering above her crouching down facing her atop an on deck railing. As if to prove either that she no longer cared whether she lived or died or that the beast was in command and there was no human, Ruby leapt from her perch down toward the stationary vampire and her dead lover. With nowhere to go, Regina braced for impact, holding tight to Emma’s body.   
At collision, the railing gave way under the shattering weight and the three fell into the depths…

Ruby woke hours later, wrapped in blankets aboard the R.M.S Carpathia on it’s way to New York City.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: Hey every ! This is a very short chapter, I just thought it should be a stand alone. Again, I've pulled things from true histor but twisted and tossed thedetails for my own purposes. I really hope you enjoy. Ive started working on the next chapter, but it might be a bit. My life is kinda crazy at the moment. Anyway, as usual, please over look the mistakes, im sure there are many, and please, please let me know what you think. Happy reading. 

Chapter 8

In the days long past, there was a magnificent empire by the sea, Phoenicia. The Phoenician people were  peaceful, and strived for knowledge. Their empire flourished through the ages, spreading their wealth and religion near and far. From the capital city, a loving, ruling family guided the Phoenicians in worship of a great and powerful God, Shapash, the goddess of the sun. They made offerings and sacrifices, built temples and statues to show her magnificents.  So loved was their god, and so loyal were they, that Shapash gifted the royal lineage with wondrous abilities.  

The royal line became known as the Phoenix. Beings that could live hundreds of years, and after death be reborn if they so choose, or they could linger in the afterlife and reincarnate later in time. 

They drew their power from the sun they worshiped, some of the royal line were even rumored to have control over fire itself. These gifts were passed on to any who were born of the royal family. Though wholly new birth, happened so rarely because the originals would just reincarnate after death. So the gifts stayed within the small circle of gracious people who continuously ruled the empire. Shapash loved her gifted people, she continued to shower them with prosperity and peace. 

So loved was the Phoenician god Shapash, that a lesser god Mot, god of the underworld grew jealous. So jealous and enraged that he wanted to destroy the Phoenician royal lineage. The root of all Shapash’s love, her greatest creation.  Mot, disguised himself and entered the capital, targeting it’s weakest inhabitants, ones that could be easily manipulated and corrupted.  He offered god like strength, speed and eternal life for a price, death and fidelity. A number agreed…

Mot called upon antediluvian curse, one the he knew would give the accursed the ability to forever end the Phoenix race. He swiftly killed his new follows, then from their eternal condemnation he called them back. A curse of death, but also of timeless, cold, breathless life. Having denied their once beloved Sin Goddess, they were now forever separated from her and her light, left in utter darkness. This was their main weakness, for if they stepped into her radiating light, they would burst into flame as punishment for their betrayal. 

Even after stealing away some of Shapash’s  beloved people, Mot’s treachery was still not at an end. His main target still lived. His cursed vampires were promised, if they drank the life giving liquid from a Phoenix, they would be immune to death and the effects of the sun entirely. Truly, God like… 

Seeing what Mot had done to some of her people, Shapash called upon another beast of the night to defeat the dark creatures Mot cursed. Her beast had long been in existence but never had a purpose, she gave them one. The Lycanthrope were humans that could transform into great and powerful wolves.  Feverous, vivacious beasts, to battle the cold, emptiness of the Breathless monsters.  

The newly created vampires ravaged the Phoenician empire, destroying the capital city they had once built. They sought out every royal, attempting to consume every last drop of regal blood. The beasts fought the monsters, the deaths were numerous. No one side prevailed.  Some were able to escape the carnage, but most perished. Tragically, some monsters had gotten to few of the Phoenix line and had quickly devoured them.They were now genuinely God like beings walking this earth.  Yet, the beasts that lived, were able to rescue and smuggle away less than half of the Royal family.  

From that time on, werewolves have been the guardians of the Phoenix line and the natural enemies of The Breathless Vampires. Time moved forward, vampires still targeted the few remaining Phoenixes, while wolves died trying to prevent this. It is prophesied that one from the three would bring balance between the descendant


	9. Chapter 9

Hello Everyone!  
I apologize for not updating for so long. I wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to rewrite the story. Still using the same idea, just changing some things. I wasn't in love with the direction it was going in so I really felt it needed a change. I'm working hard to get everything put together and will hopefully have chap one out soon. Thank you all for sticking with me.


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